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Savannah Bee Company

Ted Dennard, founder of the Savannah Bee Company, began keeping bees when he was 12, but it was during his stint with the Peace Corps that he was able to experience firsthand not only some of the varieties of honey available worldwide, but also the importance of giving back.

When he returned home to Georgia in 1998, he renewed his beekeeping efforts, this time along the Altamaha River in the southern part of the state, and began packaging rich, pure honey that he extracted in his kitchen. Today, the Savannah Bee Company is based in a 40,000-square-foot warehouse on Wilmington Island, near Savannah. As the company has expanded, so has its capacity to support charitable projects.

Company Growth

In much the same way that products like extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar have moved from the pantries of serious foodies to become kitchen staples, Savannah Bee hopes to introduce honey as an everyday ingredient to the masses, says Eleanor Rhangos, director of marketing. “Honey can be artisanal and specialized,” she explains. “Ted started Savannah Bee Company with rare, single varietal honeys. In that way, he created a specialty honey niche.”

To help make the idea of specialty honey more understandable to the uninitiated, Savannah Bee began offering its Everyday Honey Line. “This is 100 percent pure, raw honey, but Ted has blended different honeys together for different uses,” says Rhangos. Currently, Everyday Honey includes Tea Honey, Cheese Honey and Grill Honey, which sell for $12 per 12-ounce tower.

“The honey is purchased from the Honduran beekeepers at a premium price, then imported and bottled under the Peace Honey brand. Additionally, we donate $3 from the sale of each bottle to Heifer International.”

Focusing Their Philanthropic Efforts

Savannah Bee Company has always made a point to help out charities on both the local and national levels, says Rhangos. But, about a year and a half ago, the company realized that its philanthropy lacked a strategy. “We were giving away lots of money and time, but it didn’t have much of an impact,” she says. “We wanted to continue helping out local causes, like the Georgia Conservancy and Riverkeepers, but thought, ‘Let’s consolidate the rest and make it a brand.’ And that’s how the Peace Honey brand came to be.”

By creating a brand, the company knew it would be able to raise greater awareness and give more back to the various organizations. The only remaining question was deciding on the first project. Dennard and Rhangos were already familiar with Heifer International, a charity that gives a variety of items, including livestock and beehives, to families and communities in need. As noted on the Peace Honey web page, Heifer's mission is to “work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.”

Heifer International already had a co-operative in Honduras with beekeepers that were looking for a broader market in which to sell their honey, so Savannah Bee found itself a partner. “The honey is purchased from the Honduran beekeepers at a premium price, then imported and bottled under the Peace Honey brand,” Rhangos explains. “Additionally, we donate $3 from the sale of each bottle to Heifer International.”

Peace Honey was introduced in the middle of December 2009 and so far, about 5,000 units of the product have been sold. “We missed the holiday buying season as a result of challenges of importing honey from Honduras,” Rhangos says. The company expects that number to greatly increase this holiday season—especially after the response it received at the Summer Fancy Food Show. The 12-ounce bottles are KSA kosher certified, retail for $15 each, and feature an eye-catching blue label as well as the Heifer International logo—offering even more exposure for their partner organization.

The raw, lush rainforest honey is softly sweet with earthy notes. The company recommends using it alone as a dip for pretzel sticks, as an accent in an exotic fruit salad, blended into a honey-mustard dip, baked into a spiral sliced ham or used in a variety of recipes that Savannah Bee offers on its website.

“We plan on continuing with Heifer International in order to truly make an impact in the lives of the beekeepers in Honduras, but the goal is to use Peace Honey to partner with other organizations in future years.”—Kristen Seymour

To view all of the companies featured in the November/December 2010 Specialty Food Magazine dedicated to companies that give back, click on the following link: Three Companies that Give.