As the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Nancy Serag, BS ’97, pressed forward, determined to nurture her young business, Honey & Hive Boards. It had launched mere days before the shutdown, welcoming its first customers just as restaurants shuttered their doors and waited out the days with uncertainty.
With no business website and only an Instagram page to take orders, the one-woman, Orange County, California-based operation began delivering boards to customers’ doorsteps, confirming the delivery by snapping pictures of the orders and including her feet in the shot.
She began posting the delivery pictures on Instagram and they became a “thing,” Serag said.
Customers became invested, she said, intrigued by the eye-catching shoes she wore in each post.
Five years later, she’s built a community. “People like engaging because they know me. People like supporting people,” she said. “People know me as one of the faces of the company.”
Honey & Hive has evolved beyond business-to-customer to include business-to-business services. Serag has also created the Honey & Hive Boards Boarding School, a virtual and in-person charcuterie board-making course, and ships class supply kits nationwide to her students. She’s had 760 students since 2023.
Serag shared the Honey & Hive story and talked about the impact of George Mason on her life during the Mason Nation Alumni Reception in Newport Beach, California, in mid-June.
Born in Ohio and raised in Pennsylvania, she transferred to George Mason the spring semester of her freshman year. Before coming to George Mason, she had not seen anyone who looked like her, said Serag, a first generation Egyptian-American. “When I came to Mason it’s like my world exploded, but in a good way,” she said.
Each year during the university’s International Week she noticed the effect of food on people—and how it unites them. “The [Mason] events with food were the culminating force that brought us together,” she said. Now, her daughter is showing an increased interest in Virginia schools; Serag said the 18-year-old was recently accepted to George Mason.
Serag finished her degree in Public Administration in just three years, but encourages today’s students to take their time in college, perhaps enrolling in classes out of interest and not because they are required. “As a student, open yourself up to things because you never know what you’re going to love,” she said.
Making charcuterie and grazing boards proved to be a creative outlet and a love for her, despite having no formal training. “Lean into your passion,” she said. “There’s always a way to monetize that.”
Instagram for Honey & Hive Boards: https://www.instagram.com/honeyandhiveboards/
Story by Jamie Rogers