Hope Seeds at Christ Church feeds families worldwide

On Feb. 7 at Christ Church of Longboat Key, volunteers packed hope for dozens of families in the form of tiny bags of eggplant seeds.

Since 2016, members of the church have been volunteering a couple times a year with Hope Seeds, a Christian nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable gardening and nutrition around the world.

“We’re using the seed as a tool to teach about gardening,” Maxine Balsbaugh said.

In 2019, the organization helped 250,000 families.

“We’re replenishing supplies for this year,” Balsbaugh said.

On Feb. 7, Christ Church volunteers passed the 6,000 mark in total seed packets made during their sessions and almost reached a total of 7,000 packets created since 2016. For the three-hour session, about 50 volunteers helped pack the seeds.

“This is a bigger crowd than normal,” Christ Church member Ann Quackenbusch said.