In hockey, an assist is known as an apple, and grower, marketer and developer of tree fruit Honeybear Brands says it has found a creative way to celebrate the good on and off the ice.
The company says it collaborated with women’s hockey star Taylor Heise to put hunger on ice. Every time Heise feeds her teammates an assist, Honeybear Brands donates 600 pounds of apples to Second Harvest Heartland, a food bank serving Minnesota and western Wisconsin, according to a news release. The company says it has donated 3,600 pounds of apples, or about 12,000 servings of fresh apples, so far.
Heise, a forward for the Minnesota Frost, helped her team win the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s inaugural Walter Cup last season.
Kristi Harris, brand manager for Honeybear Brands, told The Packer that assists — or apples — are the key to winning a hockey game, so it was a natural fit to team up with Heise, who grew up in Lake City, Minn., where Honeybear Brands’ cidery is located.
“There’s a lot of popularity around women’s sports,” Harris said. “It’s growing in unprecedented ways, and we decided that it was a great opportunity to partner up with Taylor Heise, who was the No. 1 draft pick in the inaugural season last year in the Professional Women’s Hockey League. She’s this young, just ambitious, great, well-spoken, incredible athlete.”
This season, Heise is off to a hot start on the ice.
“The season just started at the end of November, and she’s already racked up 6 assists,” Harris said. “She had a total of nine last year, and the season goes through May, so we’re donating a lot of apples.”
When the Minnesota Frost takes on the New York Sirens on Jan. 15, Honeybear Brands plans to double up the donations, giving 600 pounds of apples to a New York-based food bank called FeedMore if Heise gets an assist during the game on top of the 600-pound donation to Second Harvest Heartland.
Harris said that Heise has been promoting the campaign with Pazazz apples on her social media, using her platforms to promote the importance of proper fueling the body with fiber for overall health.
“She also loves to bake, and so she’s incorporated Pazazz on her social media posts and in some of her baking,” Harris said. “She’s got a really big following of both men and women, and it’s a younger crowd too, and they’re concerned about what they should be eating and how to stay healthy. So, she’s talking about apples on her social media.”
Heise has also visited a Second Harvest Heartland food packing event with other young hockey players who were excited to meet the budding hockey star, Harris said.
“Apples are one of the core varieties of produce that Second Harvest Heartland always keeps on hand for our food shelf partners,” Lindsey Ochmanek, director of sourcing and demand planning for Second Harvest Heartland, said in a news release. “On average, we distribute 260,000 pounds of apples each month through our hunger-relief network and our fellow Feeding America food banks in Minnesota, so keep those assists coming, Taylor.”
The Honeybear team said Pazazz apples are a late-season addition with a sweet and tangy flavor and an explosive, refreshing crunch. Pazazz apples are available year-round and this year’s crop is flavorful and plentiful.
