Belinda Bumble Bee

A tale that both children and adults can learn from… Belinda Bumble Bee presents a whimsical look at a very serious matter: Colony Collapse Disorder. According to a 2011 United Nations report, of the 100 crop species that supply 90 percent of the world's food, bees pollinate more than 70 percent. Their survival is essential to ours! Children will learn to respect Belinda’s fuzzy buzzy friends and want to help them as a result!

Beginning in 2007, commercial bee keepers and hobbyists began to report catastrophic losses of honey bees: According to the American Beekeeping Foundation, as many as 700,000 of the nation’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been affected by these losses. This is not just a problem in America; honey bee populations worldwide are in decline due to such factors as habitat destruction and pesticide damage. According to a 2011 United Nations report, of the 100 crop species that supply 90 percent of the world's food, bees pollinate more than 70 percent. They are vital to our agricultural health and we depend on honey bees to pollinate our farms, orchards and backyard gardens. As an added bonus these bees make honey and beeswax. Without honey bees our nut, fruit and vegetable supplies would suffer. This could translate into a severe shortage and then ultimately the complete loss of the very ingredients that make up a childhood staple; the peanut butter and jelly sandwich! A portion of the profits from the sale of Belinda Bumble Bee will be donated to help fund bumble bee conservation efforts worldwide. You can do your part too. Sign up today and find out what you can do to help. Belinda will send you a little pack of seeds containing some of the honey bee’s favorite flowers. Plant them and you can help give our fuzzy little friends a fighting chance! A tale that both children and adults can learn from… Belinda Bumble Bee presents a whimsical look at a very serious matter: Colony Collapse Disorder. According to a 2011 United Nations report, of the 100 crop species that supply 90 percent of the world's food, bees pollinate more than 70 percent. Their survival is essential to ours! Children will learn to respect Belinda’s fuzzy buzzy friends and want to help them as a result!

Jennifer Burns Katafigiotis, a New Jersey native, has her B.S. in Marketing and International Business from Fairleigh Dickinson University and her M.S. in Nutrition Education and Food Science from Montclair State University. She currently is an adjunct faculty member at Montclair State University as well as the Director of Nutrition Education at The Institute for Medical Weight Loss and Nutrition. She has been a featured expert on genetic profiles and weight loss as well as childhood neophobia on CBS News affiliates in the NYC area, as well as a guest lecturer and featured panelist on nutrition related topics. Jennifer also volunteers many hours annually on nutrition based initiatives, having worked with (then Newark, N.J. Mayor) Sen. Cory Booker’s office on health and wellness initiatives such as First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. Jennifer’s passion for the field of nutrition developed “organically” as they say; from her time spent gardening and cooking with her mother as a child, to seeing her infant daughter’s relationship with food as an, “Empty canvas, that I will help ‘paint’ by how I introduce food to her.” Jennifer is intrigued by the who, what, when, where, how and why of food. Jennifer’s next children’s book, Cebidae Spider Monkey, which inspires children to address their fear of new foods in a fun and empowering way, will be available in  2015.