Food First Program Spotlight

Starting a garden is one step toward food sovereignty. But for many crops—tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, berries, and herbs—bees are the unseen partners that turn flowers into food and seeds for next year. Without pollinators, gardens struggle; with them, they thrive and endure.

Photo by James Weeks

In 2022, Food First provided James Weeks with a small grant to help him start his beekeeping activities. This support, combined with the successful completion of a six month Beekeeping Apprenticeship and equipment provided by the EcoVillage Farm Learning Center (operated by Food First Board member Shyaam Shabaka) in Richmond, CA, James started his journey into apiculture and community-based food systems.

“I wasn’t engaged with beekeeping before,” Weeks explains. “I had a new garden installed a few years ago and thought it would be good to have bees.” Today, he tends a single apiary—“just one hive at the moment”—but its impact ripples outward. He describes the hive as both a source of honey and a living classroom.

From this single hive, Weeks draws lessons of resilience, stewardship, and community care. “Having bees inspires me,” he says. “It makes me feel connected to nature and part of the larger ecosystem.” The bees’ work sustains the plants that feed us, making each hive both a site of production and also a hub for ecological education and potential income generation.

Photo by Dennis Schmidt Unsplash

Although beekeeping began as a way to support his garden’s productivity, Weeks’s journey has evolved to centering beekeeping and the lessons bees can teach us as a primary focus. For example, Weeks has created the Across the King’s River Foundation, and plans to launch beekeeping workshops next year. His current honey venture, Sweet Simone Raw Organic Honey, embodies this spirit of connection: pollinators nurtured with care, people nourished with sweetness.

Weeks is also developing a four-part documentary series, with production targeted for 2026. The first film, Becoming Light Again, is already in active development. One installment will spotlight beekeeping—showing how tending bees can root communities in practices of sovereignty, care, and abundance.

As his media and nonprofit work expand, Weeks emphasizes one core principle: self-led food solutions. From one hive to an entire movement, he’s demonstrating that local power begins with local food—and that bees, small but mighty, can guide the way.