Founding Farmers and GWU Launch “largest restaurant-owned urban apiary” in DC

Photo by PoPville flickr user annejuliet

From a press release:

Founding Farmers, the greenest restaurant in Washington, D.C., is partnering with The George Washington University to establish the largest known restaurant-owned urban apiary in the country. The restaurant installed six beehives on the roof of Lisner Hall, an academic building on the GW campus that sits just two blocks away from the restaurant.

In its first year, the Founding Farmers’ apiary may produce 10 pounds of honey per hive, but by the end of the second year, in 2012, each hive may produce between 20 and 120 pounds of honey which Founding Farmers will use on the menu at the restaurant and for small-production bottling.

In addition to creating the apiary, Founding Farmers also established a $5,000 scholarship that will be awarded to an undergraduate GW biology student who will oversee the apiary for the next year. The scholarship is the second that Founding Farmers has created for the university. Earlier this year, the restaurant awarded the first annual $5,000 Scholarship for Sustainable Hospitality, which is awarded to a student attending the GW School of Business.