Lord Mayor of Cork hails initiative to aid honey donations to charity

AN INITIATIVE by Cork beekeepers and a local Men’s Shed will now allow apiarists from across the county to bring honey donations to one of the city’s oldest charities.

Members of the North Cork Beekeepers Association have teamed up with Glanmire Men’s Shed, coming up with a practical way to help beekeepers bring deliveries of natural honey to Cork Penny Dinners.

The members of Glanmire Men’s Shed have designed and built portable frame-holders which will make it easy for beekeepers to transport frames full of honey.

Beekeepers can now easily deliver donations of frames full of honey to Cork Penny Dinners on Little Hanover St, where volunteers will be able to extract the honey from the frames and make sure it goes to good homes.

Innovation

Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy, Lord Mayor of Cork, recently hosted members of Glanmire Men’s Shed and the North Cork Beekeepers Association at Cork City Hall, and he hailed the innovation.

“The Men’s Sheds in the city are going from strength to strength, and the Glanmire Men’s Shed has taken a very worthy project on board — making frame-holders to help deliver honey to Penny Dinners, which is a very worthy cause,” Mr McCarthy said.

“Through their work, the Men’s Sheds are also delving into work that can help positively influence climate action, while also helping people in need.

“I was delighted to host Glanmire Men’s Shed and representative of Cork beekeepers on the steps of City Hall recently, and it was a very pleasant and informative gathering, while the presence of members of Cork Penny Dinners helped to highlight the seriousness of the project.”

Bertie Cuffe, who is a beekeeper from Rathcormac with over 20 years of experience, said the idea had come last year.

User friendly

“The basic idea was that Glanmire Men’s Shed made frame-holders that facilitated the giving of a frame of honey to Cork Penny Dinners and, because the North Cork Beekeepers Association sponsored the idea, Glanmire Men’s Shed gave frame-holders to all of the North Cork beekeepers.

“Now, if a beekeeper wants to give a frame of honey to Cork Penny Dinners, having a frame-holder makes it very user friendly.

“If they give a frame of honey, they don’t have to extract it and put it in jars,” Mr Cuffe said.

“Penny Dinners are familiar with honey and they can cope with extracting it.”

He added that natural honey is “second to none” and filled with nutritious goodness.

“And what we’re asking is that local beekeepers think about donating their ‘sweet 16th frame, meaning that if they have 16 frames of honey, they consider donating their 16th frame to a very good cause,” said Mr Cuffe.

Beekeepers who would like to donate a frame of honey to Cork Penny Dinners may contact North Cork Beekeepers at corkhoneyfarms@gmail.com or Penny Dinners at mail@corkpennydinners.ie.