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The All Press Softball See page 16
June 10, 2013
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Birmingham gardeners to brand ‘Honeyka’ By J. Patrick Eaken Press Staff Writer news@presspublications.com
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Are you going to get a Corvette or the cheapest little putt-putt you can because you’re tapped out? Chris McGowan See page 16
Gwen Olic prepares to place the bees in the hive box. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Chef’s Best Catering to serve inmates By Cynthia L Jacoby Special to The Press At least three warm breakfasts a week are part of the new menu at the Ottawa County Jail since Chef’s Best began providing meal service for the inmates. Chef’s Best Catering of Port Clinton started cooking June 1 for the prisoners at the Ottawa County Detention Facility located at the Ottawa County Courthouse and the misdemeanor jail at the county complex off Buckeye Boulevard. Their contract specifies meals at $1.95 each and will be in effect for three years, Sheriff Steve Levorchick said. Previously, the meals were provided by the Riverview Healthcare Campus for $2.44 per meal. With an average of 80 inmates on site per day, the costs add up quickly. More than 86,000 meals were served last year, amounting to a $223,000 food bill, Levorchick said. The sheriff hopes to cut meal expenses
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Meals are a big factor for the jail. It’s a huge expense.
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Imagine going to the grocery store and seeing “Honeyka” brand honey next to Tony Packo’s pickle relish. If that day arrived, it would be two food brands with roots in Birmingham, East Toledo’s historic Hungarian neighborhood. That is the dream of the Birmingham Development Corporation, creating a cottage industry that is bottling and selling honey it manufactures and processes out the 100year-old Magyar Garden on York Street. The BDC is branding its Birmingham sweet honey “Honeyka” because it is an Hungarian term of endearment. “It’s like saying ‘Oh, dear’, or when a little kid falls down, you go, ‘Oh, Honeyka, what’s wrong?’” said master gardener Karen Wood of the Perrysburg-based Black Swamp Conservancy. “We thought it was so cool that it was a Hungarian word that would translate over to a name for our company.” The long term plan is for funds from honey sales to help fund improvements for the Magyar Garden. An even longer term goal is to help fund the operations of the BDC so that money can be put back into the community. Another goal is to hire workers to help process the honey, Wood said, to create jobs and make “Honeyka” a full-fledged business offshoot of the BDC. “We want to get more successful by hiring people from the neighborhood and they can walk to work,” Wood said. For now, the work is done by volunteers. “We would like to get big, but we wanted to start small because we don’t think you should start out too huge,” Wood said. “You get growing pains and you fail. Every year with our garden and our company, we add something, and this year we added four hives, and we’re putting up this greenhouse, we put up the fence, and we’re having a statewide open house there on the (August) 17th.” The business has already begun expanding its product base. “This year, we tripled our hives and we’re going to start making stuff out of lavender,” Wood said. “We’re going to make lavender soap because we grew the lavender next to the bees. The bees like the lavender and the lavender likes the bees, so we’re go-
about $50,000 in the coming year with the new contract. Riverview took over the meal distribution nearly a decade ago when Ottawa County Commissioners opted to close down the in-house kitchen in the basement of the detention facility. “We had to let a lot of good people go. They were great people,” said Bob Brat-
ton, who served as sheriff at the time of the kitchen’s shuttering. Bratton is now the chief of the Genoa Police Department. “Meals are a big factor for the jail. It’s a huge expense.” Department finances have been debated for years, especially as the recession rolled through the county. But Bratton said aging kitchen equipment was also a factor in the kitchen’s closing. “We had some major equipment issues. We were looking at $100,000 for some new equipment we needed – and that was just the beginning.” The commissioners at the time employed Riverview for the meal preparation and delivery, although Magruder Hospital had also been considered, Bratton said. Still, no contract was ever advertised or inked, Levorchick said. And in reviewing finances, the sheriff decided to see if a cheaper option was available by putting the contract up for bid. Chef’s Best, run by owner John Couture
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