Contactless seed exchange will run for a week at variety of locations

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on March 24, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Community Food Connections Association to cancel its 2020 Seedy Saturday, the 2021 seed exchange program is being spread over a week.

Alison Van Dyke, Community Food Connections Association’s food security co-ordinator, says they started brainstorming ideas for the seed exchange program in January because they wanted to give gardeners the opportunity to exchange seeds and learn from others.

The seed exchange program started Monday and will run through Sunday. The organization has set up contactless pickup and drop-off of seeds at the Little Free Libraries throughout the city.

“I thought that would be a great way because people can come and drop stuff off and pick things up. They’re not in contact with other people, it’s outdoors so we don’t have to worry about having access to buildings,” said Van Dyke.

Van Dyke says they partnered with Resilient. Sea, a local sustainable living organization, to prepare containers with envelopes, instructions and seeds because they had seeds to donate as well.

She adds they have been posting about the seed exchange on social media and have been sending emails to those who have participated in previous years.

“It’s hard to lose momentum that you have when you’re an annual event that’s really well attended and known,” said Van Dyke. “We definitely wanted to give people those same opportunities this year and hopefully next year we’ll be back in person, but in the meantime we’re hoping this will tide people over.”

This year’s seed exchange week will also include presentations from speakers on a wide range of gardening topics, says Van Dyke. The schedule for speakers and the location of the Little Free Libraries can be found on foodconnections.ca.

The first five years of Seedy Saturday were held at Police Point Park, but Van Dyke says attendance has risen over the years and they were planning to move to the Medicine Hat Public Library last year before the event was cancelled. She says close to 200 people have taken part in the exchange in recent years and she wouldn’t be surprised if that number increased.

“Since COVID has started, the demand for gardening has just grown and gardening space and information has grown exponentially,” said Van Dyke. “People have a lot more leisure time and are spending a lot more time outdoors. I even know people who used to garden, then they stopped gardening for a while, and then last year they started gardening again.”

Van Dyke says she has been by one Little Free Library and saw someone has already dropped off a bag of seeds and a gardening catalogue. She plans to check out more of the seed exchange locations throughout the city during the week.

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