By Woodrow Polston
Community R-VI freshman and FFA member, Chloe Campbell, recently celebrated exciting news with her family. She was awarded a $1,000 National FFA SAE grant that was sponsored by Bob Evans restaurants.
The grant money will help to assist Campbell with expenses and plans of expansion for her business, Too Good To Bee True Gifts and More. Although she has only recently started her business, it is off to a successful start.
“I started my business around the middle of September this year,” said Campbell. “My family has been in the beekeeping business for over 5 years now. I originally started my own business for my SAE project for FFA. After a short time, it was doing so well, I purchased some of the hives from my parents, to use and continue my own business,” she added. Her online store has a nice variety of products, many of which are made with the natural honey that is produced on the family property. When she is not busy, Campbell enjoys reading, working in the family greenhouse, going to car shows and spending time with family and friends. Her plans include increasing her business and attending a tech school. The nature of her business gives her many perks to enjoy throughout the week.
“What I like most about my business is the fact that I can do it from home,” said Campbell. “I can make it fit into my schedule which includes homework and other school activities. I also like that people enjoy my products, and that everyone seems to have their own favorite items. Overall, the business is growing and doing much better than I had ever expected it to. The Christmas orders have really helped to keep me busy,” she added.
Some of the items that are available on her Facebook page include a variety of honey-based products, baked goods, including pies, caramels, peanut clusters and hot chocolate mixes. She also sells assorted baskets with a mix of different products. Customer reviews on her page have been positive: “Absolutely love the cinnamon honey candy! Thank you Chloe, for my special treat today!” wrote one customer; “The pies are amazing and very reasonably priced. Having home delivery is the best,” wrote another customer.
“The feedback that I am receiving has been amazing,” said Campbell, “especially for the honey candy. It seems that the customers favorites are cinnamon, original honey and blackberry vanilla. I also just released my very own original recipe for salted caramels, which have become very popular among my repeat customers. They are also requesting that I continue to sell them all year and not just on a limited basis during the holidays. I have agreed to do this for my customers and I appreciate the business,” she added.
If you would like to try some of these all natural, honey-based products, ‘bee’ sure to check out her page on Facebook and see what all the buzz is about.