Here’s a great example of what can happen when people think of ‘people’ instead of ‘profits’. And a classic example of avoiding food waste. Supermarket sector – and other – billionaires could take a lesson from the philanthropists at Sioux Honey Co-op and Giant Eagle…
The Sioux Honey Co-op and Giant Eagle donated nearly 5,000 pounds of Sue Bee Clover Honey to the Pittsburgh nonpro-fit, 412 Food Rescue…
A national initiative
TribLIVE reported the honey will go to food banks and community pantries. It’s part of the ‘Sharing Sweetness’ initiat-ive, a US-wide effort to provide honey to local causes working to fight hunger. Soux Honey – makers of Sue Bee Brand honey products – are major players in the project, through their Honey for Hope program.
Who’s Sioux?
The Sioux Honey Co-op represents more than 150 beekeepers across the north-ern US and California. Started in 1921 by a group of just 5 Sioux City Iowa apiar-ists, the organization has grown to be-come one of the largest all-American honey pro-ducers. The company sup-ports its co-op members, honey bee and honey production research, and food relief charities in the cities where it operates. With this latest donation, The Sioux Co-op has gone truly national.
Why is honey so desireable?
Food banks and community pantries love honey – it doesn’t spoil, it’s a great source of Calories, vitamins and minerals, and it’s something food basket recipients will already know how to use. The donation provides a nutritious, long-shelf-life food product directly to folks who need it, as well as keeping a warehouse full of surplus food out of the landfill…
On another front… The donation represents the work of some 3.7 million honey bees, which pollin-ated tens of thousands of acres of clover hay in the process.
Truly a massive gesture
The 10,000 bottles of Sue Bee honey weigh in at about 5,000 lb / 2.5 tons / 1,100 kg. And they’ll ben-efit as many hungry families as there are bottles to hand out. At an estimated retail price of $15.75 per bottle, if Sue Bee gets even half that wholesale, it represents a $80,000 gift.
An example worth following
As I said at the top of this post… The fat-cat supermarket cartel billionaires – are you listening, Galen Weston? – sitting on their corporate duffs, paying lip service to bringing down food costs, need to take note of what the Sioux Honey Co-op is doing.
I draw your attention, fat cats, to the example Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have already set, donating billions of their own money to help the poor and hungry, and those in need of better health and edu-cation support, around the world.
Galen, McLean’s magazine estimates your net worth at at least $18 billion. What are you planning to do with all that money? You can’t take it with you. So why not put yourself on the moral and ethical level of Gates and Buffet, and give away $2 – or $3 or $5 billion – of your hoard to the Food Banks? To help keep Canadians from suffering malnutrition, and all the conditions and diseases that proceed from that despicable state.
My take
Better yet, Galen, put those billions into a trust to generate funds to support food relief for Canad-ians in perpetuity. And while you’re at it, get your billionaire cronies at the other members of the Big 5 Canadian Supermarket Cartel to pitch in. Never fear! You can still charge the prevailing high prices to folks who can afford them…
Your job approval rating right now is lower than Ebenezer Scroodge’s on page 3 of A Christmas Carol, Galen. Almost as dismal as Donald Trump’s. You have a rare chance to go to ‘hero’ from ‘zero’, here. And rescue your legacy from ‘living in infamy’, as FDR described the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour…
~ Maggie J.