Rooftop beehives at The Mall in Luton help raise almost £700 for foodbank

Home-made honey has been produced by two beehives on the roof of The Mall shopping centre.

And the sweet smell of success has raised £680 for Luton Foodbank, one of the centre’s charities of the year.

As part of its environmental pledge, The Mall installed its first beehive in May last year, which was later joined by a second beehive and a pollinator garden.

Two Mall staffers took up the role of trainee beekeepers and were finally able to extract some honey after lots of continuous hard work.

This is the first time shoppers have had an opportunity to buy some of the delicious honey for themselves.

All proceeds go to Luton Foodbank, a charity that does excellent work providing food for families in need in the community.

The process was very time-consuming for the team, which began the initial extraction in August.

More than 30 frames, oozing with honey, were removed from the roof and taken to the kitchen, where the team got to work removing the spoils with a hand operated extractor.

This was then sieved to start filling containers with raw honey, a process that took five days with 75lbs collected in total.

The jars went on sale during The Great Big Green Week, the UK’s biggest celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature.

The honey costs £10 for a 1lb jar or £5 for half a pound. But be quick – there are only a few jars left!

> Contact [email protected] to reserve yours.