This article highlights Community Grant Strategy Partner Hood Honey 216 and their exceptional work to improve the social development of Mt. Pleasant residents through beekeeping programs and education. Read the full article by Erin Kelley in The Land.
The passion and dedication of Trey Williams, founder of Hood Honey, is evident as he shares his vision for uplifting the Cleveland community, specifically the neighbors of 119th and Kinsman, through urban beekeeping.
This urban studies major with a drive for community-driven businesses has been making waves in the Mt. Pleasant community for the last five years. What started as an idea in 2020 to support his friend Sam Booze’s innovative movement for community-driven businesses, called “Leaders of our Future America,” has blossomed into Hood Honey, a thriving urban farm with five sites across Akron and Cuyahoga County, with locations ranging from farms to cemeteries to gardens.
Williams’ journey began with just two hives in Miss Harrison’s Garden, who is Williams’ neighbor on 129th and Benham, where he witnessed the profound impact of his beekeeping suit on passersby. With his eye-catching beekeeper gear, he says, he even deterred locals from running stop signs on the corner. It was here, in 2021, that Williams began to understand that he had something special with Hood Honey.
Now operating out of his grandmother’s house in his old neighborhood, 119th and Kinsman, Williams, along with his partner Alex Polley, who goes by Polley, and a few volunteers, have transformed the land with hoop houses, bee beds and fencing, setting the stage for the next phase of growth.
Polley, 25, was studying to be an engineer at the University of Cincinnati (UC) but wasn’t sure if the college path was for him. After returning home, he started a business called “Polley Culture Farms.” He grows vegetables alongside Hood Honey, and he is now registered with the USDA.
Williams told The Land that Polley Culture Farms also makes a lot of popular juice products for the farm. The most popular is a watermelon-limeade and a beet juice. Williams calls Polley “the life of the party, a funny guy, and important to what Hood Honey is doing.” He recalled how cool it was to be in business with someone that he used to coach in youth baseball, saying, “I never would have thought I would be such good friends with a kid I used to coach.” You can find more about Polley Culture Farms on Instagram at Polleyculturefarms.
Teaching their neighbors
Hood Honey has an exciting new project in the works in partnership with Teaching Humanities Excellence Urban Agriculture Initiatives (UAI), fueled by a grant from the Department of Agriculture. The team will be building bee beds and adding pollinator gardens in residential areas near the Mt. Pleasant farm. The plan is to connect with residents in the neighborhood who are interested in gardening and provide them with native plants to grow, completely free of charge. This effort will support not just Hood Honey’s bees, but also the vital native bee populations in the area.
Hood Honey’s mission goes beyond being just another urban garden, Williams said. He is determined to make a real impact on his community. He aims to tackle food insecurity head-on and plans to share their harvest with local businesses, churches and daycares.
“Five years from now would put us at 10 years in the game,” Williams said, adding that he has ambitious plans to expand Hood Honey throughout Mt. Pleasant and beyond. Those plans include acquiring more empty lots and transforming them into thriving agricultural sites, growing the network of urban farms. Hood Honey’s apiaries serve not only as a source of sweet, golden nectar but also as a catalyst for change and Williams is eager to take the innovative workshops and training on the road.
Partnerships
In addition to selling raw honey, Williams has also partnered with friend and peer Ashley Thomas, also known as “soapusha,” the owner of “dopest soap,” to create all-natural products like beeswax lip balm, body scrubs and more; more info on her shop can be found at dopestsoaps.com.
Thomas, 37, makes natural products that aim to heal the body, getting people away from commercial products. She is self-taught, loves educating others and the learning process itself.
“In 2017, natural healing wasn’t a thing. It was something that the Black community was just starting to get into,” Thomas said. However, natural products and healthy living have always been a way of life for Thomas. Using her skills she has created cosmetics products for the farm using the wax, honey and even the bees themselves.
“To care for ourselves better, we need to help ourselves. It starts with our skin, which is the biggest organ in/on our bodies. With your pores, things are absorbed and have access to our bloodstream. We all should have a skin care routine,” Thomas said.
Dopest Soaps has a store in Chandler Park, in Cleveland, off Euclid and London Avenue. This location holds over 300 small businesses.
Williams and Thomas said they had an amazing response from the public last season. “They raved over it, they love the shea butter,” Thomas said. “They enjoy the soaps, when we do our markets, we sell out, almost immediately. They even ask sometimes to stay connected with me.” Thomas shared a big part of the response, past the personal connections, is their constantly and prices. Sharing an example of how her soaps are $5 a bar, and her competitors selling a $20 bar.
Williams and his team also host classes to teach the community about the art of beekeeping and the vital importance of bees as pollinators. In summer 2024, Williams’ truck caught fire, and he made a GoFundMe. The community supported him so much that he wanted to return the love by offering free workshops this summer. His “RatedR” class, which is an adult class where students get a more unfiltered Trey, will be held on Sundays at 11 a.m. for 2 hours, from June-Oct. You can sign up for these classes on his website at hoodhoney216.com. Hood Honey also offers other services for those who are interested in boosting pollination for their farms or gardens without becoming beekeepers themselves; they even offer hands-on pollination services.
With such grand and selfless ideas, I wanted to know more about the man behind the beekeeper’s suit. I wanted to know what inspired Williams to start such a thankless, back- and, at times, pocket-breaking mission. He said he draws inspiration from his family and deep love for his community and Black culture as a whole. He passionately shared that once he understood family from an “African spiritual point of view” and embraced his role within that family structure, his path became clear. Williams, a father of two adds, “My role is to go get a piece of the world and bring it back for my family.” That powerful sense of purpose, combined with his passion for uplifting and empowering Black people, has been the driving force behind Hood Honey since day one.
Hood Honey, a vibrant urban demo farm nestled in the heart of the city, is a testament to the power of community, resilience, and sustainability. Williams says he’s been most surprised by his own resilience and the incredible collaborative opportunities that have emerged.
Read the full article at The Land.
Picture by Majestic Vision Photography