Seed Saving and Stewardship in High Schools

Posted on Wednesday, 13 July 2022 under Stories Featured

Early this year, we teamed up with Matthew Kemshaw to help us expand our seed saving and stewardship education and engagement in high schools, in collaboration with Farm to School BC. Matthew has several established relationships in high schools in the Greater Victoria area, homelands of the Lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, currently known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations, and the W̱SÁNEĆ, Sc’ianew, and T’Sou-ke Nations, which provided a fantastic launching point for our programming.

Engaging with students from Grades 9-12 over the past few months provided a unique opportunity to connect, share knowledge, and inspire each other. We helped to launch a school seed library alongside sustainability and social justice classes at Edward Milne Community School in Sooke. With three foods classes from Belmont High School in Langford, we used seed cleaning equipment such as a threshing box, wooden screens and the Office Clipper. When the spring rains dragged on, and the garden remained a mud pit at Belmont High School, we engaged with students in five classes about stewardship and seed sovereignty. Over tabbouleh and a fresh-picked garden salad on a sunny spring day, we had a delicious time talking seed sovereignty at Royal Bay Secondary in Colwood with foods, culinary and science students.

We talked about seeds with over 200 potential future seed growers and advocates!