San Mateo library programs target sustainability

At the center of the city’s environmental education efforts is a lecture series, featuring speakers with specialized expertise in varying sectors of the environmental field. The series will be kick-started by a “mini youth environmental conference” on Feb. 11, and will include four events, in addition to a climate-related card game session. On Earth Day, April 22, the city plans to have two separate sustainability talks at the main branch of the library.

In addition to its educational events, the city will be offering hands-on sustainability workshops. Clothing mending sessions will run through March and April, creating opportunities for adults, teenagers and children to make their wardrobes more long-lasting and sustainable. Extending the lives of existing clothing reduces the need to purchase more, limiting the environmental impacts of the clothing industry. The first of these workshops will be held Feb. 9. It will be geared toward adults and focus specifically on mending sweaters.

Through its partnership with the Fixit Clinic, an international organization dedicated to increasing the longevity of household items, the city has also planned quarterly mending workshops. During those events, San Mateo residents have the opportunity to bring in a more general array of broken items and repair them, with the help of trained volunteers. People who are interested are encouraged to sign up on the library’s website.

The city also has a “Story Walk” in the works, which would involve displaying portions of a picture book up around the Central Park Arboretum. The featured story would have an environmental focus, and this project aims to connect the younger children of San Mateo to the city’s sustainability efforts.

Family gardening workshops will create another opportunity for children to get involved. During those events, families can plant seedlings in planter pockets made from recycled materials that they will be able to take home. 

People are invited to help create those planter pockets, either by contributing old jeans or tote bags to the denim and canvas drive or participating in one of the library’s planter pocket workshops, the dates of which are set to be announced in the coming weeks.

The library will also be opening a seed library, allowing residents to take produce or flower seeds and use them in their gardens. In the future, the city aims to also allow San Mateo community members to contribute their own seeds to the library.

These programs highlight the city’s efforts to create a community that holds sustainability as a core value. Anyone looking to make a difference can find new opportunities to do so through these programs. They are supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. To sign up for or learn more about the programs offered at the San Mateo Public Library, visit www.cityofsanmateo.org/Library.

Ellen Kim is a senior at San Mateo High School. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.