Story Seeds started during Covid, but not with our name.
Chris was invited to join Let's Go Read, a book subscription club set up by two other dads. The idea was plain. Post children a box each month with independent picture books, a few activities, and something to read with a grown-up. It expanded into after-school reading clubs that schools paid for.
Eighteen months later the funding ran out and the company wound up.
Chris bought the remaining stock. Several hundred copies of Superbat, a lot of I Really, Really Need a Wee, and a stack of other titles we couldn't stand to see sent to landfill. He started posting them to Somerset schools as part of Innatus Digital's B Corp community giving.
What became obvious in hindsight was why Let's Go Read didn't work. Parents with money to spare on a monthly book subscription had already bought their children books. Parents who couldn't afford a subscription certainly couldn't afford a new one. And schools didn't have the budget for after-school clubs either. The money was never going to come from the families or the schools who actually needed the books.
So we started Story Seeds. Somerset only, because it's better to do one county well than spread thin. Innatus routes all of its charitable giving into it. The goal is the plainest thing we can think of. Every Somerset primary child who wants a good book should have one.
Since then we've expanded to include board games, card games, Yoto audiobook players, and creative writing competitions. None of that was planned. Teachers and headteachers asked for it, and children read and listen in different ways.
We're still small. We're still entirely funded by Innatus. But we're sending books, and the schools that have had a delivery keep coming back.
If you run a Somerset primary and you'd like to register, there's a short form here. If you're a business thinking about sponsorship, get in touch.