In October, Planting Seeds launched the Wentworth location of the B & B Highway. The launch took place at Woollahra’s Emanuel Synagogue. Members of the community joined us for the event and two local newspapers reported on the success of the event!
Below is the article featured in the Sydney Jewish Report.
'to bee or not to bee'
A number of Jewish organizations are participating in an initiative that has Sydney 'buzzing'.
The 'B & B' Highway Sydney has joined cities such as Oslo and Vancouver this year with its airborne pollinator pathway that is helping to redress the alarming decline in bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators. Unlike overseas initiatives however, that just focus on bees, the Sydney B & B Highway aims to help a vast range of pollinators.
And the launch this week in Sydney's Wentworth electorate, saw Emanuel synagogue and Moriah College featuring as two of the six host sites for the 'Wentworth B & B Highway'.
With ‘B & B’s’ – Bed and Breakfasts for Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Bats and Biodiversity – located across Sydney, our endangered pollinators are being helped through the B & B Highway’s garden corridors and much needed urban habitat.
The initiative is steered by the not-for-profit organisation Planting Seeds (formerly known as FoodFaith).
The launch this week took place at Woollahra’s Emanuel synagogue with students from Moriah College joining Emanuel pre-schoolers in making insect hotels and learning about strategies for assisting our pollinators.
Member for Wentworth Dave Sharma spoke with Planting Seed’s founder, Judy Friedlander, and Emanuel synagogue’s Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins and St Columba’s Uniting Church’s Rev Brian Jago provided blessings connected to the new gardens and native stingless beehives.
The Wentworth B & B Highway is the recipient of the first grant awarded to the initiative. The six gardens and native stingless beehives or insect hotels have been created thanks to a Federal government’s Stronger Communities Grant.
The six Wentworth host sites are Woollahra’s Emanuel Synagogue, Moriah College, Bondi Beach’s St Anne’s Catholic Church, Woollahra’s Uniting Church in partnership with the Woollahra fire station, Community Housing in Bondi Beach, and Bondi Junction’s The Junction Neighbourhood Centre. The Waverley Men’s Shed helped with the construction of the native stingless beehives, and Bunnings Randwick and Randwick City Council’s Community Nursery with garden supplies.
Other Sydney areas that have received funding for the B & B Highway include Lane Cove, Liverpool, Ryde and Randwick. There will be at least 30 hosts sites in Sydney by March 2020.
The involvement of the NSW Department of Education, which is helping to develop curriculum to provide resources and support for school children engaging with the B & B gardens in their schools will ensure that the B & B Highway translates to knowledge and action.
Also being developed – a citizen science app called Pollinator P.I. – Private Investigator – so that school children can upload pollinator images and data from their phones or tablets to contribute to a national biobank database.
Judy Friedlander, who is also a PhD candidate in sustainability, spoke of the dire situation around insect, bird and other pollinator declines and the implications for food supply, other species and soil and water.
But there is hope and strategic action that we can provide through city pollinating gardens and the right habitat for birds, bees, butterflies, bats and other biodiversity, she said.
Said Judy Friedlander: ‘The amazing response to the B & B Highway – the fact that it is buzzing – hard to avoid the puns – is that it is an environmental initiative that is positive, hands on and can scale. We are joining the dots.
‘We are linking people and pollinators and when we plant a B & B garden and install a stingless hive or insect hotel, we are contributing to a huge city-wide highway and corridors for pollinators.
‘We are greening our city and making it a sanctuary for people and pollinators.’
To read the entire November issue of the Sydney Jewish Report, click here.
The launch was also featured in the Australian Jewish News report Around the J-com.
In the bee-ginning
SYDNEY’S eastern suburbs has spearheaded the “B & B Highway Sydney” - bed and breakfasts for birds, bees, butterflies, bats and other endangered pollinators - with the official launch of the Wentworth “B & B” at Emanuel Synagogue last week.
Helping to redress the alarming decline in bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators, the highway follows overseas initiatives such as Oslo’s and Vancouver’s bee corridors but with a twist - the Sydney Highway is helping many other “Bs” - birds, butterflies, bats and other pollinators important for diversity.
Started by the not-for-profit organisation Planting Seeds (formerly know as FoodFaith), the organization’s founder, Judy Friedlander, remarked: “It is an environmental initiative that is positive, hands on … We are linking people and pollinators and when we plant a B & B garden and install a stingless hive or insect hotel, we are contributing to a huge city-wide highway and corridors for pollinators.
“We are greening our city and making it a sanctuary for people and pollinators.”
Two Jewish insitutions have a special role to play as “pollen booths” - the Emanuel Synagogue and Moriah College, and Moriah students helped to make insect hotels and learnt about strategies for assisting pollinators at the launch.
Member for Wentworth Dave Sharma, Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins of Emauel Synangogue and St Columba’s Uniting Church’s Rev Brian Jago were also present at the launch.
With B & Bs located across Sydney, endangered pollinators are being helped through the B & B Highway’s garden corridors and much needed urban habitat.
Featuring six host sites - and with Sydney’s eastern suburbs receiving the first grant - the six gardens and native stingless beehives or insects hotels have been enabled by a Federal Government Stronger Communities Grant.
The six Wentworth host sites are Emanuel Synagogue, Moriah College, St Anne’s Catholic Church, Woollahra’s Uniting Church in partnership with the Woollahra fire station, Community Housing in Bondi Beach, and The Junction Neighbourhood Centre.
Other Sydney areas that have received funding for the B & B Highway include One Cove, Liverpool, Ryde and Randwick. There will be at least 30 host sites in Sydney by March 2020.
The NSW Department of Education is also helping to develop curriculum that will provide resources and support for school children engaging with the B & B gardens in their schools, and a citizen app called Pollinator P.I. (Private Investigator) is being developed for schoolchildren to upload pollinator images and data from their phones or tablets, contributing to a national biobank database.
