Our seed saving project uses seeds as a springboard to learn about botany, plant genetics, seed sovereignty, and provides free seeds to Western Students and the broader community through free seed libraries and seed swaps. In our pilot year of the seed saving project we grew and saved seed on 13 varieties of beans, 10 varieties of flowers and herbs, as well as tomatoes, peas, and corn. As of summer 2025 we have given away over 500 packets of seeds. 

We save and give them away because we believe seeds are meant to be shared. The color, flavor, culture, story and sustenance that seeds provide is something that belongs to all of us. Seeds are safest in the hands of the people who grow them out, who know their stories, who save them and share them.

Seed saving provides a tactile opportunity for us to contemplate the stories of plants and the relationship all our ancestors have had with plants and their seeds for thousands of years; the way seed varieties have been patented and protected, honored or abused, brought, sold, gifted, resuscitated, revered.  As we save seed, we dedicate ourselves to the responsibility and privilege of honoring the land, the pollinators, and the people who have kept these seed varieties alive for generations.