BETHLEHEM, Pa. — There’s a library within the library in the city’s South Side.
Neatly organized between shelves of books, there’s a crate full of packaged gardening tools alongside a cardboard sleeve, like an open-air card catalog, of flower and vegetable seed packets.
“We had put out 75 [seed packets] earlier last month, and they were almost completely gone by two or three weeks ago,” said Lauri Miller, manager of Bethlehem Area Public Library’s South Side branch.
“And then I got some more to replenish it, because it just seemed like it was very, very popular.”
Four years after opening, the tool-and-seed library at the South Side branch, 400 Webster St., still is operating.
Patrons are able to check out tools for a week with their library card, while the seeds are open to all, for free.
“It's a relatively simple program that doesn't require a lot of overhead or time,” Miller said. “The most time-consuming part is just organizing the seed packets.”
‘Increase nutrition access’
The seed library recently got a donation of 40 packets from Food to Flourish, a youth-led nonprofit co-founded by Moravian Academy sophomore Maddie Yang.
“The seed library project is really dedicated to helping increase nutrition access to a degree, which is part of our mission, and also increasing gardening education and teaching people how to garden in the first place.”Moravian Academy sophomore Maddy Yang
“The seed library project is really dedicated to helping increase nutrition access to a degree, which is part of our mission, and also increasing gardening education and teaching people how to garden in the first place,” Yang said.
Through the group’s “Plant It Forward” initiative, which began this year, Yang and her colleagues have donated about 1,600 seed packets to 10 libraries across Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Through the initiative, the group hopes to improve access to fresh food and combat food insecurity while fostering connection in communities through local libraries.
That connection is “so important, especially these days, when I feel like people are less connected with one another,” Yang said.
Increasing access to fresh, nutritious food is especially important for the city.
A large part of it south of the Lehigh River is designated a "low income and low access” area, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Access Research Atlas.
Food access has improved somewhat since the designation was made back in 2020.
In April 2023, grocery store chain Ideal Food Basket opened at 410 Montclair Ave.
That summer, the city got $2.9 million from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department's Community Project Funding to help establish the Bethlehem Co-op Market at 250 E. Broad St. It’s expected to open at some point this year.
‘Expect more’
Miller, who started at the library branch in October, said the seed and tool library is a way to meet the community’s needs beyond the expected.
"Libraries have really become more of a community center than just a place for books or movies."Lauri Miller, manager of the Bethlehem Area Public Library’s South Side branch
“I think every library has to be more responsive to the community where it resides,” Miller said.
“Libraries have really become more of a community center than just a place for books or movies. People still love all of that stuff, but they really expect more when they come to the library.”
In the coming month, she said, she hopes to coordinate educational programs to help residents interested in growing their own gardens.
While the number of patrons checking out tools has been low, there’s been a spike in interest lately, Miller said. She said she hopes the program will become more popular.
There's no data available for the number of seeds given out.
Miller worked previously at Emmaus Public Library, which also holds a seed library. It’s a popular program there, too, she said.
Asked who visits the South Side seed library, Miller said it “runs the gamut.”
“I've seen a good number of people from 30s into retirement age,” she said. “There's some families who come in and have kids pick seed packets as their first experiment with gardening and growing things.”
