June 12, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 17 Area The Valley Hospital’s Robert & Audrey Luckow Pavilion in Paramus just gained about 7,000 new employees, but they don’t take up much office space. In fact, they all fit into two rooftop honeybee hives, and by mid-summer their ranks are expected to swell to upwards of 60,000. New Jersey’s official state insects seem quite at home in their new penthouse location. The industrious honeybees will produce honey for use in dishes produced in the hospital’s kitchen and packaged for sale in the Kurth Cottage Gift Shop and Valley’s other locations. The bees arrived at Valley’s Luckow Pavilion on May 14. Valley is the first hospital to have rooftop hives installed. This is a growing trend in urban and suburban beekeeping. Other locations with rooftop hives include the Hyatt Regency in Jersey City, and other hotels, supermarkets, Valley’s Paramus rooftop hive is first for an NJ hospital and residences. Beekeeping may sound like an odd endeavor for a hospital, but it is a natural extension of Valley’s other efforts to “go green” and support locally produced food. In 2010, Valley signed the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge, which calls for hospitals to use more locally grown food, work with vendors to obtain products free of pesticides and (continued on page 23) Shown with the honeybee hives atop The Valley Hospital’s Luckow Pavilion in Paramus are: Valley Dining Executive Chef John Graziano, Valley Dining Director of Food and Nutrition Services Dawn Cascio, Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera, and Bee Bold Apiaries Co-founder Joseph G. Lelinho.