The seed library has been a great success! We’ve partnered with the Edible Campus Gardens, FeedU Pantry and the College of Nursing and we ran out of our initial run of seeds – so we purchased more bulk seeds and are currently distributing those in the library. You can view a blogpost about the seed library on our website.

In addition to providing seeds to interested students, staff, and faculty – we also provided seedlings of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in early spring. You can see a photo of me tabling with the plants below. We gave away the plants in under an hour! Workshops and webinars about garden keeping and well-being have been supplied by the Edible Campus Gardens and we have a robust collection of books and resources available in our new Browsing Collection, found by the library front desk. The FeedU Pantry, located in EHSEB, also has a collection of seeds so that they can continue to meet their mission to “minimize hunger among students, their families, and faculty and staff, by providing free, accessible, and nutritious food.” This resource has been especially utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’ve had several patrons comment on how thankful they are for the seed library. It’s displayed proudly near our library entrance and it has conveyed a lot of interest from many passersby. One of our library staff members has been especially enthusiastic about the project and keeps us all updated by sending photos of her growing garden.  It has brought joy to many.

Interested in applying for a seed grant for your team or workspace, apply here.