Youth Seed Stewardship Continues to Cultivate Food Leaders
Grace Ihejiamaizu & Rayna Almas
Another year has passed since our May 2025 article about the Youth Seed Stewardship pilot project and we’ve carried out yet another year of the project! With 21 new youth, 12 new gatherings, and more than 900 new packets of seeds sent out across Waterloo Region, this has been another year of growth.
Project Supporters - Our sincerest gratitude to our major financial supporters!
The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation
The Timeline
SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2025
Seedy Workshops
On September 18th and October 9th, Seed Stewards gathered for workshops that enabled them to first explore the science behind seeds, followed by a session of hands-on seed harvesting at a partner school site. These two get togethers were the perfect opportunity to lay the foundation of knowledge & teamwork for the project ahead. Big thanks to Bob Wildfong and Nancy Hainsworth for the expertise and fun!
OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2025
Steward Gatherings
The team of Seed Stewards gathered every two weeks to co-lead the preparation Seed Library for the upcoming year. From seed cleaning and sorting, to germination testing and inventory database development, to research and selection of new varieties to add to the Library. Plus, they had a chance to embark on a field trip to Galt C.I. to see seeds in action at a school, inspiring ideas of what’s to come.
DECEMBER 2025
Seed Packing Gatherings
Over the course of two evenings, several Seed Stewards and dozens of community members joined us to pack, label, sort, and celebrate the many new seed additions to the Library! In all, more than 4000 seed packets were completed across the two gatherings. And, most importantly, they offered a space for reflecting on and appreciating the fall stewardship season.
JANUARY – MARCH 2026
More Steward Gatherings
Over the course of six gatherings, the team of new and returning Seed Stewards finalized the Seed Library inventory, co-designed promotional materials, brainstormed community groups in need of seed access, performed germination tests and seed stratification, and spent plenty of time reflecting on what seeds, food, and community mean to them. This group also took part in a field trip to KCI to explore indoor and outdoor school-based food production, and created mini Seed Libraries to place at key community locations.
In all, the team packed up and delivered about 800 seed packets to 29 school and community groups across the Region during February and March. An additional 150 packets from the Seed Library were shared with community members at Seedy Saturdays, for a total of about 950 seed packets distributed this season! The rest are tucked away for use in school gardens over the summer, and for next year’s Library.
The Inter-School Seed Library
The Library, in operation since February 2025, is currently hosted at the Seeds of Diversity office in Uptown Waterloo, where it sits alongside our main seed collection (the Canadian Seed Library). Many of the seeds will be sent out to our youth garden teams as they care for six school garden spaces in Kitchener and Cambridge during July and August. Some other seeds will be sent to schools as requests continue to trickle in. The rest are being organized and jarred up (they’ll stay viable longer that way), to be kept safe and sound for next year.
What’s Next for Seed Stewardship?
As the season shifts, our focus turns to the Youth Food Market, a spring and summer priority that brings the energy of the program out into the community in a fresh, visible way. In the months ahead, youth will be taking an even greater lead in activities, promotions, and seed saving itself, as we continue to optimize what's in the Library and deepen its roots in the Region. We're also excited to share that a seed garden with KW Little Theatre is in the works, a wonderful new partnership on the horizon.
Come fall and winter, Youth Seed Stewardship returns for its 2026/2027 edition. We'll be welcoming a new cohort of young seed stewards for more learning, more collaboration, and a renewed commitment to community access to seeds. If you know a young person who would thrive in this program, stay tuned, recruitment is coming! The Seed Stewardship project is just one of the ways young people are finding their footing in the food system, and there's much more where that came from.
Youth Seed Stewardship is part of our larger youth-driven program, Youth in Food Systems, that provides Ontario- and Waterloo Region-based high school youth unique opportunities for learning about food systems, gaining leadership experience and transferable skills, exploring careers in food and agriculture, and addressing the emerging need for social connections with peers and adult allies. By empowering exploration of environmental topics and careers related to food and agriculture, we inspire youth to become leaders in a climate-friendly food system. Follow us on Instagram to stay in the loop!
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