Sovereign Seed Sanctuary in Lisbon aims to educate, fortify food access
%20(1_fitted%20(1).jpeg "Sovereign Seed Sanctuary is a faith-based 508(c)(1)(A) nonprofit founded in 2025 by Bryce Gaetano.")
Living in northeast Ohio, Bryce Gaetano saw the impact of food deserts, deteriorating supply chains and economic decline on his neighbors.
He wanted to make fresh, affordable food an easier resource for his community to access, which is why he started Sovereign Seed Sanctuary for residents in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Sovereign Seed Sanctuary is a faith-based 508(c)(1)(A) nonprofit founded in 2025 by Gaetano to increase education around sustainable living, permaculture design, herbalism and holistic wellness.
Their mission is also to promote food security and accessibility in and around Lisbon, as well as teach people how to grow food, preserve seeds and cultivate crops.
“We’re local to this land, we grew up here,” Gaetano wrote online. “The forests, rivers and city blocks that raised us are the same places we now feel called to heal. The Sanctuary was built rooted in the knowledge that growing food is an act of sacred service, preserving seeds is a prayer for the future and healthily feeding your neighbors is an act of radical compassion.”
Gaetano’s experience includes leading mushroom cultivation workshops, guiding forage forays and developing educational programming in herbalism and soil health. Through Sovereign Seed Designs, he designs regenerative landscapes for others.
“For years before this, I traveled and worked on farms through the WWOOFing movement, learning regenerative growing, permaculture design, animal care and the rhythms of working directly with the Earth. Those experiences became the foundation for Sovereign Seed Sanctuary, turning lessons from soil into systems of self-sufficiency and community regeneration,” he wrote online.
Since registering as an Ohio non-profit in 2025, Sovereign Seed Sanctuary now has a partnership with Honeycomb Arts and Wellness Collective for volunteer planting days in Youngstown, preservation classes and local foraging excursions.
In early 2026, Sovereign Seed Sanctuary started a year-round indoor mushroom and microgreen production facility inside a 1,000-square-foot commercial building in Lisbon.
