redistribution:
Call for donations of wax and honey
Welcome, dear interested supporter!
We invite you to join us in resourcing the sharing of medicine that is connection to land, through the honey bees who offer sweet gifts of honey and wax.
our ask:
Share a portion of your surplus honey, pass on your unprocessed wax cappings and burr comb scrapings, and we will redistribute in frontline and urban Indigenous communities in the DTES and beyond. We do this through relationships we have grown over a decade plus of beekeeping and gardening in low barrier community settings.
Either: connect with us directly: info@hivesforhumanity.com or 778-889-3421 (sarah)
Or: bring your donation to BCHPA’s conference showroom: October 23- 25, 2024! (dan mawson)
We have built a 100 share program (read more below) from the hives and gardens we tend, and ask you to help us extend that to 200 shares this season! To make that possible we aim to gather an additional 300 lbs of honey; and an additional 35 lbs of beeswax!
We look forward to connecting with you, and sharing the story of connection through our work. Donations will be honoured with acknowledgements on our social media and year end reporting (or may remain annonymous.)
Read more about our programming:
Hives currently tends four apiaries which make up our Community Supported Apiculture route, all located in East Vancouver: Healing Garden, V6A Community Garden, Britannia Centre Transformed Life Garden and Sole Food Urban Farm.
Over the past 5 years have been moving from a Social Enterprise model based in retail, wholesale and pre-vocational training, into a Community Supported Apiculture (CSA) model based in redistribution of resources, recognition of relationships, specific roles and community agreements.
Our programming is grounded at the Healing Garden on the 100 block of East Hastings, and includes three other community garden sites to create our CSA offering, which grows honey, wax, plant medicine, shared story and a practice of care.
We offer 100 shares for buy-in, asking shareholders for their trust - that we will work in good ways to create medicines to share with them at the end of the season: honey, candles, seeds, salves and stories.
This creates a $10,000 baseline to build our programming from, which totals from $65-$100,000 for the work we are currently holding. We match these 100 purchased shares, with 100 shares redistributed in frontline and urban Indigenous community in the DTES, through relationships we have been deepening for the past 12 years as an organisation, and more as individuals in community.
Our community engaged programming at the Healing Garden (117 East Hastings) is free, low barrier, street level access to land, a place to grow, learn, share and be together:
Weekly we Tend Together: we grow medicinal and pollinator friendly plants with a focus on native plant species, and we tend the space which holds ground for ceremony, celebration and memorial– with about 30 visitors per weekly session, and 1-2 events per month with 20 visitors.
Monthly we Grow Governance: we save seeds and redistribute them through cultural sharing with Indigenous Elders at the Carnegie Centre and Library – with about 100 seed packages shared monthly.
Seasonally we Eat with the Ecosystem: we create and host Fire Feasts that center foods traditional to these unceded lands, sourced through relationship, holding ground for ceremony and holding up the urban Indigenous elders who are knowledge keepers of the Healing Garden space – about 100 portions of traditional food shared, and 5 knowledge keepers supported.
Annually we Remap Relations: we consult with cultural advisors in key partnerships, collaborate with artists, report back to our members and redistribute gifts of honey, wax and medicine in community - in 2024 we redistributed 100 shares of honey to match our 100 CSA shareholders.