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Bauta Initiative Profile: Richmond Community Seed Library

The Richmond Community Seed Library, launched at a Seedy Saturday event in March 2012, operates out of the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library in BC, and treats its seeds like a check-in, check-out library system. Regular library members can check out seeds to plant and grow, and check in freshly grown seeds later that year for others to grow. This cooperative system follows the method that Seeds of Diversity’s seed library uses, and it’s exactly why we like to call ourselves a library and not a seed bank. We believe this approach fosters community involvement by creating a network of seed sharers and relying on members to increase, multiply and diversify the seed collection. The community of Richmond seems to agree, and has enthusiastically become involved.

Talking about their very first event, Program Coordinator Erika Simms says, “By the end of the event, enthusiastic attendees had borrowed most of the seed stock, and we only had a few seed packages left. Fortunately, we were able to get more seeds to fill our library with seed donations from a local seed saver and Westcoast Seed.”   

The momentum from that first event hasn’t slowed, and the Richmond Community Seed Library has enlisted the support of Carrie James, a fourth year student at the University of British Columbia, and funding from the Bauta Initiative and the Chapman and Innovation grant to further develop the seed library at the Brighouse Branch of the Richmond Public Library.

“We have been at the library community table several times over the summer, distributing seed-saving information and signing people up to grow and save seed. Since we started the community table we have had 127 people sign up for seeds. At the most recent community table, Carrie had people waiting for her to arrive, some of whom had seeds to donate and others who were waiting to borrow more seed” says Simms.

In addition to operating the seed library, the project offers workshops on seed saving techniques and methods to interested participants. The marriage of the seed library and seed education ensures that members collect and return high quality seed that can be stored for long periods while still maintaining high germination rates. This type of community involvement is an important part of the project’s mission: “We are committed to increasing seed and food security in our community by helping community members gain access to seeds and to learn how to grow their own food,” says Simms.

One of the goals of the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security is to help create a linked network of seed distribution centres from coast to coast so that growers, small and large, inexperienced and expert, can easily gain access to local seed varieties and learn how to grow and save them. The Richmond Community Seed Library is exactly the type of project the Bauta Family Initiative and Seeds of Diversity are delighted to support and help grow.

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