Member Spotlight: Robyn Lieber of Sweet Like Honey

Why SMI? Robyn Lieber saw how well it worked

Sweet Like Honey founder Robyn Lieber admits she is a sentimental person.

Totes full of handwritten cards she’s received over the years confirm this.

“When I pick up a card and it’s from a birthday and it says, ‘Love, Grandma Margaret,’ who is not alive anymore, just seeing that handwritten ‘Grandma Margaret’ takes me right back to beautiful memories,” she said.

Combine her sentimentality with kindness and you’ve got ideal qualities for her current role. Her nonprofit organization Sweet Like Honey focuses on giving unexpected kindness to others in the Sioux City, Iowa, region near the tri-state area of Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. The acts of kindness typically take the form of giving repurposed flowers or small gifts to those in care-center residences and shelters or at random. Handwritten notes are given, too.

‘Kind words are like honey’

Robyn, who is an Iowa native and Nebraska resident, started Sweet Like Honey during the COVID-19 pandemic after a simple act of kindness by her sister.

“We send packages back and forth to each other, and one day I opened the box that she had sent me and on the lid of it was the scripture from Proverbs 16:24, and it said, ‘Kind words are like honey,’” Robyn said. “And just that day I thought, ‘Sweet like honey. That’s perfect.’”

Robyn created a Facebook Page called Sweet Like Honey where she offered ideas on ways people could do random acts of kindness to others. After about a year, Robyn’s daughter, Amber, encouraged her to take Sweet Like Honey into their community in a different way.

“She had seen this idea on Instagram and said, ‘Mom, these people take vases, and they repurpose flowers from celebrations of life, weddings, and then pass them on to people,’” Robyn said. “When you think about it, those flowers are used for such a short period of time and they’re still so good.”

Robyn liked the idea and got to work. In the past three years, she has received nearly 45,000 donated vases and given thousands of flowers, gifts, and notes through Sweet Like Honey.

Helping people feel seen

Sweet Like Honey’s mission is to enrich lives by sharing unexpected kindness.

“It’s all about helping people feel seen, valued, and appreciated, and it’s through the simplest means that you can’t believe how it impacts people,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like it’s this grand thing, like you’re going around handing people $100 bills.”

Robyn doesn’t take orders like flower shops do, and she doesn’t try to be a florist either. Many of her small arrangements, gifts, and cards are distributed to 13 different care centers in the tri-state area, a Ronald McDonald House, and various types of women’s shelters. Other times, they have gone to people she feels led to give to, like a pizza delivery driver.

“There was a Pizza Hut delivery driver getting in her car one day, and I handed her this bouquet of lavender roses, and she just starts sobbing,” Robyn said. “She asked, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ And I told her, ‘Oh, you’re so worthy of this. Thank you for all that you do. You don’t have to do anything to be the recipient of kindness.’”

‘Nothing like a handwritten note’

Robyn has done random acts of kindness her whole life. It’s something that’s instilled in her from witnessing her mother treat others kindly.

“My mom has just demonstrated how the simplest little things given to a neighbor or a friend can make a difference,” she said. “I’ve sent lots of notes of encouragement. She also taught me how to write kind notes, and so since 2014, I have written almost 10,000 notes of encouragement to people.”

Robyn said the index finger on her right hand has a bulging joint from where the finger is often bent from writing notes.

“We’re losing the personal, you know,” she said. “It is delightful to get birthday cards and emails, but there’s nothing like a handwritten card or a handwritten note.”

Bringing the community together

While Robyn does a lot of the work herself—gathering the floral arrangements from places, taking donations, repurposing them, making gift baskets, writing notes—she credits her community for coming together to help. A local garden club meets at an elementary school to create cards for some of the bouquets of flowers. Volunteers help deliver the flowers. Briar Cliff University’s men’s basketball team even gets in on the action.

“It was the most heartwarming thing to have these young men making bouquets of flowers and then taking pictures of them,” Robyn said. “They are so proud of them. We took them to a care residence.”

Other sports teams and churches have also helped Robyn or raised money for Sweet Like Honey.

“I’ve been so blessed to have my community,” she said.

A tribute to loved ones

Since many of the flowers Robyn receives come from families who have lost loved ones, she wants to honor the family when she recycles the flowers.

“After I’m done, I pray for their family as I’m repurposing them,” she said. “I will take a short video, and I might say something like, ‘Lieber family, I just wanted to thank you for the honor and privilege of getting to do this for your family. I wanted you to see that the love that was passed on to you through these bouquets of flowers is now going to be taken out and given to somebody else so that they can love these beautiful flowers. Thank you for the privilege to honor your mother or father or son or daughter in this way.’”

The flowers come from funerals and weddings of all demographics. She has carried out more than two dozen bouquets from million-dollar homes before. She has received flowers from a child’s celebration of life. Many times, she won’t know whose funeral the flowers were for when she picks up the donations from the funeral home, but she always prays over them.

“I’ve heard back from many about how comforting it is in the time of sadness to now know the flowers are going to go to somebody else in honor of their family member,” she said. “It’s such a lovely thing to get to do.”

A vision in bloom

A goal of Robyn’s this year is to nail down a place for Sweet Like Honey to call its permanent home. She currently does all the work out of her own home, and it has become challenging to find storage for the flowers, vases, and supplies that she receives.

Her vision is to repurpose a grain bin for Sweet Like Honey. Her husband, Harlan, builds grain bins so this seems like a real possibility, but she needs to acquire land for it.

“I don’t have plans drawn up, but I have a picture, and it has windows and a sliding glass door and shutters on the window and flower boxes,” she said.

Robyn hopes to locate the land first and then get the grain bin before bringing her vision to life.

“It’s so humbling and such an honor and privilege to get to do what I do. I feel so blessed that the Lord called me to do this.”

How to pray

• For the Lord’s wisdom and guidance through Sweet Like Honey’s needs, including having its own location.
• For the right board members who can be committed to Sweet Like Honey.
• That Robyn would have the health and stamina to continue to bless others through Sweet Like Honey.