Seed Savers Exchange Inc.

Seed Savers Exchange’s mission is to conserve and promote America’s culturally diverse but endangered garden and food crop heritage for current and future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants. Requests for seeds are flowing in via multiple channels, and we are working to keep our employees safe while meeting the sharply increased demand for seeds—symbols of security, hope, and resilience—in these uncertain times. Enhancing access to open-pollinated seeds directly impacts access to fresh, healthy food. Whether it’s free seeds being sent to a community garden growing for their neighborhood, or to a gardener whose land was destroyed by a natural disaster so they can start anew, ancestral seeds returned to their Indigenous communities, or a connection made on the Exchange through which an experienced gardener shares seeds and how to grow them with someone new to gardening, SSE’s work holds great value, particularly now. The relevance of growing our own food, saving seeds, and sharing them with others will be truly profound and critical in the days ahead. SSE is not only doing this vital work, we are here to encourage and educate others to do it as well.