The Bay Area is a cradle of environmentalism and a region with a rich trove of health and medical research and resources. In this blog, we’ll report on the deepening understanding of how the places we inhabit and the lifestyles we adopt contribute to our own health and the health of our communities.
At the East Palo Alto Library, shelves near the DVD section now hold not books, but seeds: heirloom squash seeds, strawberry seeds and pea seeds, among others. Visitors can pick up a few and learn how to plant them in their home gardens. The library plans to teach patrons how to save seeds from the plants they grow to return them to the library.
East Palo Alto is often described as a "food desert," or an area where good, fresh food is hard to find. Just last year, the grocery store Mi Pueblo moved in — the first large grocer to exist in the town for decades.
Patrick Sweeney, the library branch manager, started the seed library two months ago, because he saw a need for local resources for growing healthy food. Collective Roots, a local nonprofit that teaches students and community members how to garden, jumped at Sweeney’s invitation to collaborate on a seed library.
“We’re trying to provide people with the resources so they can control their own lives,” said Kris Jensen, the organization's executive director. Collective Roots created a backyard gardeners network two years ago. It now has about 60 members who come by to borrow tools from the organization.
The idea of spreading seeds through public libraries is not unique to this Peninsula community.
Richmond resident Rebecca Newburn started a seed lending program at the Richmond Public Library last May. She was inspired by a seed library that operates through the Ecology Center in Berkeley and wanted to bring one to her community.
So she co-organized Richmond Grows, a nonprofit that established the seed lending program — which now has more than 200 users. Richmond Grows also provides signs, brochures and other materials that anyone can use to start a similar project.
That’s what Sweeney used to get the East Palo Alto seed library started. A branch of the San Francisco Public Library is giving it a try, and communities in states as far-flung as Pennsylvania and Illinois have as well.
Since the East Palo Alto seed library opened in late April, about 100 people have checked out seeds for everything from poppy flowers to watermelons.
© The Bay Citizen, 2012
