Batch Deliver 1,000 Hot Meals to Vulnerable In The Community

Huge appreciation to the Original Curryland team for a bumper Batch cooking day today. 

• Original Curryland
• The Fish Factory
• Salsa Viva Cantina
• Curry Zone Goring
• Coast Cafe
• The Fat Greek Taverna
• Casa Ciro
• Marine Garden Cafe

If you, or someone you know, would like receive our meals please do get in contact so that we can help. Equally, If you would like to support BATCH or become a volunteer - click: Be a FoodPioneer 

by Celine

Wildflower Appeal: Seeds Needed for Worthing Bees

Renovations are powering ahead at Brooklands Park and volunteers have been working around the clock to transform this ‘once disused council yard’ into an ecological natural asset for the local community. We are very excited to report that our community beekeeping and pollination hub in the heart of the park is coming together.

We are on track for setting up three beehives at the site and we have been prioritising one crucially important task: planting the entire area with bee friendly plants and flowers. Creating forage for pollination is one of the most important biological processes on the planet, as pollination fertilises and produces the next generation of plants including the fruit and crops that we all eat. Additionally, and so importantly, increasing the green space around us is combating climate change as plants and soil absorb carbon emissions from the air.

Adur and Worthing Council have kindly donated 28 plug trays and four 50L bags of peat compost alongside sachets of 'much needed' meadow seed. The local community have also generously donated a good variety of bee forage but as we have such a large area to cover with the good green stuff – we still need your help! If you have any of the following plants lying spare in your gardens and can pot them up for us to plant that would be amazing. There are some obvious and some quite obscure requests on our list but every little truly helps our Worthing bees.  If you have anything you can spare, please contact us by clicking this link.

• Native cowslips / Native primroses / Autumn flowering ivy
• A variety of types of mint, thyme and lavender
• Lemon balm / Marjoram / Rosemary / Hyssop / Feverfew
• Chamomile / Hops / Heartsease/field pansy / Chicory
• A non invasive / native honeysuckle
• Teasel / Heather / Evening primrose / Woad / Sea aster
• Sea spinach / Sea kale / Thrift / Vipers bugloss / Birds foot trefoil
• Kidney vetch / Tufted vetch / Bush vetch / Yellow horned poppy / Sea campion
• Biting stonecrop / Wild thyme / Wild marjoram / Moon carrot / Small scabious
• Hoary plantain / Agrimony / Burnet saxifrage / Horseshoe vetch / Common mouse ear
• Common Centaury / Ladies bedstraw / Dog rose

As always your help, commitment and generosity is very much appreciated. In the end we are all working together, towards making our beautiful Worthing town a more vibrant, ecological, supportive and diverse place to live.....

by Celine

Worthing Honey Collective: Bee Inspection Day...

Another round of 'Socially Distanced' Bee inspections this week at Worthing Leisure Centre by our wonderful team of FoodPioneer Bee Keepers.

Liz, Polly, Violet, Tony, Neels and the team were very pleased to report on four thriving, active and healthy hives. Stores, space and brood looking good.

Our beautiful Queen Bees 'Beeyonce and Latifah' are the biggest and busiest of the colonies. Latifah, as always, is a force to behold...Queen Agatha seemed very chilled today as is typical of her character. Broodica - who was requeened last year with brood from Agatha - seemed calm this week. We will keep a close eye on these two to ensure they are still the mean Queen Bees we need for developing the hives.

Our next steps are the supers and getting the spare hives ready so we can add space or split the colony as and when needed. It's going to be BEE a busy summer for the collective.

Please consider a small show of support for our new Bees&Seas community beekeeping project, pollination hub and educational training space at Brooklands by donating to our crowdfunder. 

by Celine

Bees&Seas 'Mini Eco Park' Featured Worthing Herald

The FoodPiooners  team are incredibly proud to have our latest Bees&Seas project featured in the Worthing Herald:

''Adur & Worthing Councils said hives will be one feature of the new space, along with a small orchard, herb garden, wildlife habitats, bug hotel and planting schemes. And at the centre of the project, called Bees&Seas, will be new shipping containers, donated by Lancing-based Sussex Transport. These will be used as classrooms and workshops spaces to help people understand the importance of encouraging biodiversity to help green spaces thrive and help in the fight against climate change, the councils said''

Our Project is flying ahead! In February volunteers visited the site and scattered some wild flowers to make a start on planting forage for the bees. Early March the wonderful Damian Pulford and his team at Sussex Transport removed the old broken containers - for recycling. A week later the Rangers at The Council cleared the yard of all heavy rubbish and waste. What a difference! And JUST YESTERDAY we are very excited to report that two brand new containers, donated by Sussex Transport, were transported and safely delivered on site. The beating heart of this project: one container will be transformed into a classroom and workshop space. The other used for storage of educational material and vital bee-keeping equipment.

Next stages:

• The wonderful people at Creative Waves are working on design and creatives to add the wow factor to our pollinations Hub.
• The fabulous Freinds At Brooklands Park are coordinating small volunteers groups to start transforming the space - from next week.
• Planting, collecting, seeding, growing - huge effort going on behind the scene to fill those green roofs and eco spaces.
• Preparing the hives. The Worthing Honey Collective will select a Queen Bee and her worker bee colony for their imminent arrival.
• Log hives and bees will be installed at the site - once the new containers are designed and windows built in.

There are still sponsorship opportunities left! Enabling us to equip a shipping container with furniture, green space, classroom, eco-power and workshop resources. There are sponsorships also for two large green roofs on the containers - for pollinator forage. Please help support our community project by donating through our crowdfunder or contact us directly to discuss in detail.

by Celine