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Happy Spring Global Seed Savers Community-
After deep thought and intentional decision making, I am excited to share a major step we are taking to continue the evolution of Global Seed Savers.
On July 31st, 2026, we will formally transition our organization from a U.S.
-based nonprofit to a locally led, community-driven organization based in the Philippines. This has been my goal from the founding of GSS, and I am proud to share that we have built our Philippines operations to the point that the local team is now ready to assume responsibility for all operations.
An organization is much more than the sum of any individual part and it has been the honor of my life to get to build this movement with each of you! Thank you to our donors, community leaders, team members, and friends who have been an essential part of our success and growth over these years.
After years of building toward this moment, I'm honored and so proud to see the Philippines team and partner farmers ready to lead this next chapter. I'm excited to watch Global Seed Savers Philippines deepen their commitment to seed sovereignty through local ownership and leadership.
Together, these last 16+ years, we have achieved milestones like:
- Training more than 5,000 farmers across the Philippines to save seeds.
- Establishing 16 Seed Saving Communities (SSCs) farmer-led organizations committed to saving seeds across all three major regions across the Philippines.
- Managing two Seed Sanctuaries, one in Tublay, Benguet and one in Bogo, Cebu, which are currently growing 175 varieties of open-pollinated seeds.
- Training a network of Farmer Leaders and Advocates who now lead Seed Schools in their own communities and across the Philippines.
- Growing the Philippines team from just two staff in 2016 to the current robust team of five dedicated Filipino Team members.
- Distributing 175 household seed library boxes to partner farmers, which equips farmer leaders to store, share, and steward a wide diversity of seeds at home and withstand ongoing climate realities. Remarkably, 100% of these boxes survived the devastating typhoons and earthquakes of 2025.
As part of the transition, I will be spending the month of June in the Philippines for local celebrations and strategic planning with the Philippines Team and Board. I will also continue to support Global Seed Savers Philippines as an advisor and supporter beyond the transition.
We hope you'll join us at one of our coming events to mark this milestone. In Denver, a Next Chapter Happy Hour will take place on Wednesday, May 20th at Vine Street Pub, while gatherings in the Philippines will take place in Benguet and Cebu in June.
To RSVP for the event in Denver on May 20th, please visit this page. To learn more about the events in the Philippines in June, please reach out to the local team for more information. We look forward to celebrating this milestone and the continued success of our mission with you all.
I truly never could have imagined all that would unfold 20 years ago, when I took the leap and left for the Peace Corps in the Philippines. It has been such a gift to get to build this movement and I can't wait to see all that comes from this next chapter under our tremendous local leadership team and dedicated partner farmers across the Philippines.
May we continue to Seed Onwards. Maraming/Daghang Salamat!
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