Hope Seeds plants good future at Christ Church

At Christ Church, members and volunteers spent the morning packing seeds in hopes of a better future. 

Hope Seeds, a local organization that puts together seed-packing events all over the country and ships seeds worldwide, held one of its two annual events at the Longboat Key Church on Thursday, Dec. 5. Members came together to pack onion and swiss chard seeds in the morning. Those seeds will be sent all over the world, said CEO David Balsbaugh, but they’re currently working in Africa, Central America and particularly Haiti. 

Volunteers come together to pack seeds into small plastic bags to be sent to areas in need. The crops included are sent out based on how well they can grow in the areas they’re heading too. Hope Seeds also provides training in the communities they serve to create a more sustainable farming future. 

Over 4,000 total seed packets were packed on Thursday, with 2,900 swiss chard packets and over 1,000 onion seed packets. Volunteers also included over 2,000 Messages of Hope, which are small packets of the gospel, as Hope Seeds is a Christian organization as well. 

Hope Seeds works with Christ Church every year, and they will have another seed-packing event in February.