Feeding a Hunger for Connection: Little Free Seed Library Launches at the 2026 Earth Day Fair

With new environmental and sustainability initiatives taking root here at McDaniel — such as the annual Earth Day Fair, projects at the McDaniel Environmental Center, a redeveloped campus garden, and a newly renovated greenhouse — the time is finally right for a seed library to come to campus. Thanks to years-long effort and collaboration between Elly Engle, her students, and members of both the McDaniel and the Westminster communities, McDaniel’s Little Free Seed Library has officially launched.

Students hand out free plants at the Earth Day Fair. — Students hand out free plants from the McDaniel greenhouse at the 2026 Earth Day Fair.

When Environmental Studies Associate Professor and Department Chair Elly Engle, Ph.D. received the Nora Roberts Faculty Award in 2019, she envisioned using the funds to bring a seed library to the McDaniel campus. Shortly after, that vision was eclipsed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the concept of seed libraries was just about to start growing. As people isolated in their homes, many took up gardening as a new hobby, and seed libraries sprouted across the nation, bridging the socially distanced gap.

Now, in 2026, we may be in a post-pandemic world, but the desire to connect and collaborate with one another is far from gone. With new environmental and sustainability initiatives taking root here at McDaniel — such as the annual Earth Day Fair, projects at the McDaniel Environmental Center, a redeveloped campus garden, and a newly renovated greenhouse — the time is finally right for Engle’s original vision to come to life. Thanks to years-long effort and collaboration between Engle, her students, and members of both the McDaniel and the Westminster communities, McDaniel’s Little Free Seed Library has officially launched.

The story that can be in a seed is so powerful from a cultural, social, and environmental perspective.

Elly Engle, associate professor and department chair of Environmental Studies

Located in the windowed bridge between Eaton Hall and the Lewis Hall of Science, the Little Free Seed Library — a small, white box filled with pouches of seeds for everything from flowers to produce to herbs — can be found year-round, accessible whenever the buildings are open. In addition to seeds, the library also contains brochures about seed saving, proper planting seasons, and more, making it an ideal resource for both master gardeners and aspiring new ones.

Each piece of the library is a product of collaboration. The seeds themselves were donated from across Carroll County: Avid gardeners on the McDaniel campus dropped off extra seeds at Engle’s office, the greenhouse renovation provided unused seeds, and community partners such as Sweetbay Farms Nursery & Garden Center and the Carroll County Master Gardeners — “seed warriors,” as Engle likes to call them — also donated seeds to the initiative.

Those donations were all then hand-packaged by Engle’s students, including Kelly Durst ’26, a Health Sciences major with a specialization in Physical Therapy and a minor in Kinesiology, who had taken Environmental Studies courses with Engle since her first year. Durst and her fellow interns had a part in developing every bit of the Little Free Seed Library, down to constructing and painting the box itself.

A hand holds up a packet of seeds labeled "Sunflower Mix" in front of the seed library.

Student influence has been integral to the seed library from the start — beginning with Engle’s Changing Food Systems course, where students learn about social movements and mobilization, and food justice. “You don’t have to go too far into seed systems to start to understand social and environmental justice elements,” Engle says. “The story that can be in a seed is so powerful from a cultural, social, and environmental perspective.” The course’s capstone projects proposing seed libraries would eventually lead to the creation of McDaniel’s Little Free Seed Library.

But the initiative’s effect reaches far beyond the classroom. After taking the Changing Food Systems course in the spring of 2022, Ciara O’Brien ’22 fell in love with seed libraries and went on to become the coordinator and editor of the National Seed Library Network’s “Cool Beans” newsletter, and she founded the Prince George’s County Seed Library in 2024.

A student works with plants inside the McDaniel greenhouse. — Kelly Durst ’26 tends to plants in the newly renovated McDaniel greenhouse.

Back on the McDaniel campus, donated seeds have already been used to grow plants in the college’s newly renovated greenhouse — an act of connection in itself. “The conversations you have with another person while you’re potting seedlings in a greenhouse or while you’re weeding a garden bed are completely different than the ones you have almost anywhere else,” Engle says. New greenhouse features such as grow lights, benches, mobile carts, and potting casework and counters have allowed Engle, Durst, and others to grow a multitude of plants. During the spring 2026 semester alone, a total of 347 greenhouse-grown plants were given away to the community at no cost, 148 of which were distributed at the 2026 Earth Day Fair, accompanying the launch of the Little Free Seed Library.

A tradition for only a few years, the Earth Day Fair has rapidly grown into a beloved staple on the McDaniel campus, making it the ideal setting for introducing the seed library to the community. The enthusiasm is palpable every year as students, faculty, and staff all come together to learn about sustainability, play environmental-themed games, enjoy an acai bowl, or paint “Be Kind” signs from the Infinite Love Project. No matter what department, major, or role on campus, all members of the McDaniel community can connect with the Earth Day Fair. As Engle says, “Everyone has a place in the environmental movement, even if it’s not their major or their main career.”

The McDaniel campus is filled with booths and people for the 2026 Earth Day Fair. — The McDaniel community gathers in Memorial Plaza for the 2026 Earth Day Fair.

Everyone has a place in the environmental movement, even if it's not their major or their main career.

Elly Engle, associate professor and department chair of Environmental Studies

Now that McDaniel’s Little Free Seed Library has had its debut, the community is already invested in seeing it grow. Although she’s leaving it behind as she graduates, Durst hopes to see the seed library expand, possibly moving to a location in front of Hoover Library or opening a new branch at the Carroll County Public Library. “I hope it grows further than just McDaniel students,” Durst says.

Engle holds very similar hopes and also has appreciation for all of the connections that have stemmed from the environmental initiatives at McDaniel so far. “[These connections] wouldn’t have been possible without the community that already exists at this college and the hunger that not just students but also faculty, staff, and administrators have for being together and in conversation with one another,” Engle says. “I’ve been lucky to start these things at a place that was already ready for them in a lot of ways.”

An instructor speaks with a student, surrounded by plants in the McDaniel greenhouse. — Elly Engle, Ph.D. instructs Kelly Durst ’26 in the McDaniel greenhouse.