VITALIA Active Adult Community – Solon Recognizes the Importance Bees Play on Our Ecosystem

Don’t step on a Bee! Sounds like sane advice, but did you know it’s also a day of recognizing the incredible impact that bees play on our ecosystem? There are roughly 4,000 bee species in North America and about 20,000 around the globe that pollinate everything from flowers to vegetables. In fact, bees pollinate approximately one in every three bites of food you eat, which makes them essential to the health and prosperity of countless ecosystems worldwide. Crops such as apples, cranberries, and broccoli all rely on bees. Fruits like blueberries and cherries are 90% dependent on honeybee pollination, as are almonds. To pollinate the roughly 1.2 million acres of almond trees, the California almond industry needs about 1.8 million bees.

However, one in four species of bees are facing extinction. From fungus to pesticides, bees are facing rapidly declining numbers. In the US, the honeybee population has declined 60% since 1947.

This year, Vitalia Active Adult Community – Solon is celebrating “Don’t Step On A Bee Day” by utilizing locally sourced honey and honeycomb from Steins in our honeycomb peppered beets on July 10th.

As a chef who has been cooking for over 17 years, I have used a plethora of different fruits and vegetables daily. It is important to understand how we get the products and the sources that make them grow. It is crucial, in my field of work, that we continue to recognize things that aren’t always in plain view. Without bees that pollinate the fruits and vegetables we cook almost every meal, we would not only be without a job, but also without the vital nutrients that make our bodies grow. As a child, I was always running from bees. Who knew that some 23 years later I would need them for a successful career?