A donation as sweet as honey

INDIANAPOLIS — Two years, four colonies and 600 jars of honey — it is the recipe for a unique donation by a local Indianapolis company to a northwest Indianapolis food pantry.

The 600 jars of honey in boxes delivered Thursday to Crooked Creek Food Pantryoff of Michigan Road came from the “Harvest for Hunger” garden right down the road.

Locally headquartered Corteva Agriscience is behind the volunteer-driven garden. Its purpose is to grow and donate fresh produce to food pantries like Crooked Creek.

Two years ago, honey colonies were added to the garden to help not only pollinate the produce but also for donation purposes.

“We know that the need for food has increased during covid and that’s continued to increase even over the last year,” Heidi Spahn with Corteva Agriscience said.

Crooked Creek Food Pantry is serving some 4,000 families in the Pike and western parts of Washington Townships. Pre-pandemic it worked with less than 1,500 families.

Steve Claffey with Crooked Creek notes fresh produce donations are hard to come by. Aside from honey, Corteva also donated fresh broccoli on Thursday.

“We will bring in this week around 72 tons of food and virtually all of it will be distributed by the end of the week,” Claffey said.

Crooked Creek Food Pantry is providing families with Thanksgiving boxes next Wednesday. The jars of honey will be in those boxes.

It is open to anyone living in the Pike Township and western Washington Township area. Pick-up begins at 10 a.m.