Bayer Bee Care teamed up with the Orleans Parish 4-H chapter Tuesday to break ground on a pollinator patch in the teaching garden at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, planting pollinator-friendly plants to increase forage and educate the next generation of bee advocates about the importance of pollinators.

“We’re thrilled to work with Bayer to inspire a new generation of bee advocates, while ultimately enhancing our communities and teaching the students lessons about the importance of gardening and agriculture,” said Kevin Gordon, board president of the Orleans Parish 4-H Foundation.

Bayer North American Bee Care Program manager Dr. Becky Langer says the Feed a Bee initiative planted more than 65 million flowers last year, and this year the program is kicking off with a $10,000 donation to the local 4-H chapter to establish pollinator-friendly habitats in several of the urban gardens operated by the organization throughout New Orleans.

“Providing pollinators with abundant, diverse food sources is one of the most important things we can all do to promote bee health,” said Langer. “We created Feed a Bee to make it easy for people to be involved in bee advocacy and are delighted to get the kids and community of New Orleans involved in our initiative.”

We caught up with Becky at the Bayer AgVocacy forum here in New Orleans to get an update on the initiative: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/bayer-agvocate-becky.mp3″ text=”Interview with Dr. Becky Langer, Bayer Bee Care”]

Bayer AgVocacy Forum Photos