Grantee Spotlight: Drink at The Well

Hon’s Honey provides employment and healing opportunities for women in South Baltimore

Drink at The Well, often referred to simply as “The Well,” is a faith-inspired, not faith-required community organization founded with a mission to empower women who

 have experienced trauma, including exploitation, addiction, and abuse. Located in the Curtis Bay/Brooklyn area of South Baltimore, The Well has been a place for refuge and renewal for women and other community members in crisis for over 20 years. Grounded in the belief that every woman deserves safety, dignity, and the chance to rebuild her life, The Well offers a holistic approach that combines practical support, long-term relationships, and the healing power of love.   

The story of The Well began nearly 23 years ago when founder Mandy Memmel, a native of Anne Arundel County, began attending a church in Curtis Bay. Through her church, Mandy was deeply involved in community outreach, often intersecting with women who had experienced trauma, exploitation, addiction, or generational cycles of instability.  What she witnessed was not only the weight of hardship, but the strength, humor, tenderness, and perseverance that these women carried. Over time, Mandy’s outreach grew into a community built on long-term relationships, practical support, and the healing power of being truly seen. The Well now offers mentorship, behavioral health connections, resource navigation, family and spiritual support, and spaces of belonging where women can begin again. At the center of their philosophy is a simple but profound belief: healing happens in community.

Workforce Development Through Hon’s Honey 

As part of our inaugural Workforce Development Strategic Grant Initiative, the Knott Foundation is supporting The Well’s efforts to expand pathways to economic mobility through Hon’s Honey, a growing social enterprise creating all-natural honey and body care products. Launched in 2018 and inspired by Thistle Farms in Nashville, Hon’s Honey has grown from nine handmade products produced by four employees into a vibrant workforce of 18–24 women crafting more than 30 products. Today, eight women serve in management roles, and five receive full medical benefits – milestones that speak to both personal and organizational transformation. 

Women become eligible for employment after completing The Well’s COR Life (Community, Opportunity, and Responsibility) program, a curriculum rooted in wellness, trauma recovery, job readiness, and financial literacy.  Through weekly classes, individualized social work support, and one-on-one mentorship, women begin to build stability and confidence after years, sometimes decades, of surviving crisis. 

At the Curtis Bay production site, the “worker bees” as they affectionately call themselves, handcraft all products using local honey and beeswax and gain experience in product development, manufacturing, inventory management, and customer service. Their hands and stories are in every candle, scrub, and bar of soap. The opening of the Hon’s Honey Marketplace and coffee shop on S. Hanover Street in Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood in 2023, added training opportunities in barista skills and retail management.  

Over the past five years, Hon’s Honey has achieved 15–20 percent annual sales growth, expanded to more than 90 retail partners, and been recognized as a Level 1 Maryland Recovery Friendly Workforce – a designation honoring  businesses that are committed to creating a supportive environment for employees recovering from substance use or mental health issues. These accomplishments reflect far more than business success. They are evidence of what becomes possible when women receive the time, stability, and care needed to rise. 

Creating Safe Spaces for Stability and Growth 

During a recent conversation with Mandy, she emphasized that workforce development cannot be separated from the practical conditions that shape a woman’s ability to work. Reliable childcare, safe and stable housing, mental health support, and accessible transportation form the backbone of lasting employment. 

 To strengthen those foundations, The Well is in the process of securing key properties, including the building that houses their retail shop, The Hope Chest. The two residential units upstairs will offer women safe, affordable housing – often the missing piece in long-term stability. Additional housing opportunities nearby are also emerging, pointing to the possibility of building an entire neighborhood ecosystem of support. 

 Childcare remains equally critical. The Well is actively expanding its childcare space to meet growing demand from working mothers who rely on these services to stay engaged in training and employment. Their long-term goal is to create a community where safe, affordable, supportive housing sits just steps away from childcare, employment, and recovery services – a neighborhood intentionally woven around women and their children. 

While the work is not easy, hope remains the thread that binds these efforts together. When asked how many chances are too many for a woman who is struggling, her response is always the same. There is no limit. Each return is an opportunity to rebuild trust, and trust is the foundation upon which hope grows.  

You can see that hope in action: in the woman who once struggled now leading the honey operation; in the mothers pursuing degrees; in the peer recovery advocates guiding 

others across thresholds they themselves once feared. It shows up in the community that forms there—where even in moments of grief or setback, no woman is ever turned away. And it lives in the shared belief, echoed by staff and participants alike; that transformation is not only possible, it’s contagious. 

A Sweet Way to Support Their Mission 

If you bee-lieve in the transformative power of work and are still looking for holiday gifts or stocking stuffers, Hon’s Honey offers a wide range of handmade honey and body care products that make meaningful gifts during the holiday season. Items include raw local honey, beeswax candles, “Warsh Bars,” sugar scrubs, curated gift boxes, and other stocking stuffers, all crafted by women earning wages, developing skills, and building new futures. Each candle poured, honey jar filled, and scrub blended reflects both skilled craftsmanship and the deep courage it takes to begin

 again. Every purchase directly supports wages and the community of care that surrounds the women at The Well. 

Shop online at honshoney.com/shop-online 

Give hope. Give honey.