A month ago we had planned to distribute our Free Seed Libraries to a food deserts in Los Angeles. As of April the two places we had planned to distribute the seed houses too are shut down because of COVID-19. But this doesn't change how there is a huge problem and not enough action being taken to help solve it. Food deserts are not going anyway without people and organizations like us taking action to create change. There are many steps you can take at home to help anyone currently living in a food desert. The first being raising awareness. You can inform whom ever you're quarantined with about this issue that many don't talk about or take action on. If you go under "more" and click on a page titled problem you will interviews from people affect by food deserts, statistics and more. Another action you can take is donating to organizations and charities that are trying to end this issue. Two organizations we really suggest looking into is No Kid Hungry (nokidhungry.org) which is a organization where if you donate 1$ you can provide 10 meals for kids. The other is The Food Empowerment Project (foodispower.org) which is another organization that is specifically for helping food deserts and providing food to healthy food to people in them. The last step you could take is creating a plan, come up with something you plan to do when quarantine is over. Commit to volunteering at a charity where they pass out food, make a website, create a social media page about it, try to have less food waste and eat more left overs. Do small actions that create a big difference.
Although there are many actions we are taking now to create change there are also actions we plan on doing in the future as our next steps. The first being finally getting our the Little Free Seed Libraries out into the world. The second being getting more volunteers and starting to find a way to help others not just in our community but in every community we can. Our next steps plan on becoming a much more well known organization and finding ways to change and help more peoples lives. We want our website to become more easily accessible and able to appear on search pages without someone having to know the exact link. We don't want to be another organization that just talks about what they plan on doing instead of doing it. We intend on making as much change as we can. Although we plan on taking many more steps as a group and organization, we are not the only ones who can make change. From your own home you can build a Little Free Seed Library. We will help you find somewhere near you to drive and put it. A great project during this time could be to make one. You can start by building a structure similar to a tree house. If you don't have the materials to do this, you can purchase something like this. You can paint it anyway you like and then add dirt, reusable planters, seeds and instructions on how to grow you own food it it. It's a very easy process and if you can't afford to buy any of these things, get in contact with us and we will help you. An example of a very nice Little Free Seed Library is to the left of this writing. I know it seems so hard to create one of these, but I promise it will be so easy and fun once you start. We thrive on volunteers and getting help from another's. Another one of our goals for the future is becoming more well known, and the only way this will happen is if our Free Seed Library are put around many different neighborhoods and community's so that word will get around of our mission and goals. As a group we have many goals and it all starts with more people using this resource and if we want this to happen we need more people to be aware of what we are doing.
During uncertain times one of the most fulfilling things you can do is help those you are less fortunate than you. That is why we suggest you support our mission and do something productive, this will not only many people living in food deserts without access to healthy food but it will also help this organization and make some of the goals we have come to life. You will help this organizations next steps become a reality and instead of something we are planning to do it will become something we are doing. Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you would like to get in contact and help in anyway please email me at [email protected].