Jeff Lee, a Creston area beekeeper and co-owner of Honey Bee Zen Apiaries Ltd. and Swan Valley Honey was awarded the Leadership Award at the 2024 BC Food & Beverage Rise Awards event held November 28 at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster.

Lee, a former career journalist who co-owns the largest producers of honey in the Kootenays with his wife Amanda Goodman Lee, was singled out for his tireless work and invaluable contributions to the B.C. honey and food industries, and for helping five Ukrainian families move to safety in Canada as a result of the war within their country.

Lee was nominated for the award earlier in the fall along with Marc Wandler, co-founder and CEO of Susgrainable and Laura Cuner DuBois, founder of Avafina Organics, as part of the BC Food & Beverage (BCFB) Rise Awards which celebrates the best in the province’s food and beverage industry.

In addition to the Leadership Award, the BCFB awarded top honours to producers in categories of Best in Brand, Circularity, Emerging Business, Export, Indigenous Led Business, Social Impact, Innovation, Sustainability and others.

Lee was nominated not only for his support for resettling Ukrainian workers, almost all of whom work in the honey or grocery business, but also for his many years of support and service within the B.C.’s honey industry.

He is a long-time executive member of the BC Honey Producers Association, BC director of the Canadian Honey Council, and chair of Fields Forward, a Creston-based society that runs the Kootenay Farms Food Hub and assists farmers and food producers in southeast B.C. get value-added products to market.

“I am both honoured and humbled by this recognition,” Lee said at the awards event. “B.C. is a Canadian hotbed for entrepreneurial food producers and processors, and the BC Food & Beverage Rise Awards helps showcase that talent.”

He added, “I believe firmly in helping others within our food sector and as an immigrant myself to Canada, helping settle the Ukrainian families into the Creston Valley was the right thing to do. Canada has been very generous to us, and I wanted the families to also experience my country’s generosity.”

The Lee’s company is active in supporting B.C.’s honey industry and elevating honey as a food source, leading the way in developing innovative high-quality products. Earlier this year Honey Bee Zen won top North American honours for its Creamed Honey, single flower Fireweed Honey and Cranberry-Orange Infused Honey at two prestigious shows in the United States.

Lead image: Jeff Lee and Amanda Goodman Lee. Photos submitted

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