Urban Homestead Project’s (UHP) Beekeeping Goals:

For years, Showing Up for Racial Justice New Jersey (SURJ-NJ) has helped to support a network of grassroots, community gardens and farms throughout New Jersey (and neighboring states) organized by a collective network of Black and Indigenous organizers. The fresh food produced by this farming has gone to ecologically provide organizers and their constituents sustainably grown, healthy food. Organizers have also provided fresh produce to local homeless outreach and food justice efforts throughout the area, to give the people most impacted by food insecurity, fresh, quality nutrients.  

This upcoming growing season UHP is not only looking to continue and expand on its growth of healthy produce, but also wants to begin the practice of bee keeping. We are looking to support UHP’s expansion of bee keeping this upcoming season by raising $600. Introducing bees to the UHP gardens will help the gardens flourish as honeybees are perhaps the best pollinators; pollinating over 80% of crop species. In addition to being excellent pollinators the bees will provide UHP with honey that the project will distribute, in addition to fruits and vegetables, to the communities it supports. Honey is known to have a wide variety of positive health effects including being rich in nutrients and antioxidants, promoting heart health, having various mental health benefits such as having anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects, and more.

There are various costs that UHP will need to meet in order to begin the process of introducing managed bees to their gardens. The project will need funding to pay for membership to local bee keeping associations, sponsoring members and volunteers to take classes and be properly trained in beekeeping, and ensuring that all locations are properly licensed to be apiaries. Of course after all this, funding will be needed for the various equipment needed to properly keep the bees such as hive houses, bee suits, honey extraction tools, etc. Though much more funding will be necessary than this $600 goal, you can help UHP get the ball rolling on this process, by helping us meet this goal.

Ways That You Can Help:

1. Make a one-time or monthly donation here on Fundrazr. Please consider making your donation monthly to support the ongoing costs of this project (click "Yes, I'll contribute monthly" during payment).

2. Make a financial contribution directly at @SURJ-NJ (Venmo) or surj-nj@protonmail.com (PayPal, use "friends & family option") and mark "UHP One-time" or "UHP Monthly."

3. Share this Fundrazr with your friends, family, anti-racist groups, garden collectives, and anyone that believes in food justice

More About UHP and More Ways You Can Help:

UHP is a project that aims to establish sites for outdoor, as well as indoor gardens, that will enable year-round, sustainable growing. The vision for these spaces is for it to provide a wide variety of green and healthy food to the organizing network and its constituents, as well as a space for healing, education, and community-building events. UHP is intended to become a model for other communities that want to grow fresh food in urban settings.

All donations raised here will go directly to the project costs for UHP. Help us grow this critical, grassroots, community project led by Black and Indigenous organizers! Please consider making your donation monthly to support the ongoing costs of this project (click "Yes, I'll contribute monthly" during payment). You can also make financial contributions directly at @SURJ-NJ (Venmo) or  surj-nj@protonmail.com (PayPal, use "friends & family option") and mark "UHP One-time" or "UHP Monthly."

In addition to donating funds, you can also support the project by growing food in your backyard or patio for UHP. Organizers from the project are looking to help set up and establish home gardens throughout the state, where a portion of the food grown can go to the constituents of the UHP network. Please contact us at  surj-nj@protonmail.com with questions or inquiries.