Outstanding! #OutplantTheOutbreak 2021 season of seed sharing

#OutplantTheOutbreak was a seed distribution campaign offered to my community as an act of resilience and mutual support during the trying times of the pandemic. I am sharing some of the seed distribution highlights we were able to achieve together in the 2021 season, which was the 2nd season of two for OPOB.

Over 9,000 seed packets shared through 2021 #OutplantTheOutbreak!

In 2021, collectively over 9,000 packets of seed were shared at thirteen little free cabinet locations (including the Mobile Nature Art Kiosk- MNAK) in four St. Paul neighborhoods:

• Hamline Midway,

• Frogtown

• Rondo and

• Como

Six of OPOB locations met or nearly met the milestone of sharing 1,000 packs of seed each!

33 seed drop dates

Kiosks were restocked on 33 dates from Feb to May. Seeds stocked in cabinets at any time were curated to those varieties that could be used at that particular time. Varieties changed as the 4 month distribution progressed. Seed starting information was supplied on a weekly basis through this website and shared out to neighborhood social media.

Cold crops were the largest seed category for OPOB, outpacing other categories by 1000 packets.

Collaborations

So much gratitude to the nearly 40 individuals volunteered time to clean and pack seeds for this past year’s campaign. And, not to forget, the partnerships with each little free cabinet individual owners or organizations such as Pilgrim Baptist Church, Urban Farm and Garden Alliance, Frogtown Green and the MN Tool Library made It possible to do a distribution.


Astoundingly, were able to increase our packet distribution by over 60% from the previous season (5,600 packets to over 9,000)! Having such a diversity of locations really drives the high numbers of packet distribution. Keeping the seed stocks hyperlocal and accessible to residents while pandemic patterns kept people at home more was an important strategy for the campaign. These distribution points mainly served neighbors who were on foot or bike, and multiple sites provided access for a greater number of residents.

The ability to add more locations in 2021 was primarily due to the attentive commitment from Como Community Seed Library (CCSL)’s organizer, Dawn Lamm. Also, thank you goes to Hamline Midway Coalition for a Minigrant to do this work, and Capitol Region Watershed’s sponsorship for a native seed saving project called MnSEED offered through the Minnesota State Horticultural Society (MSHS).