When Krystal Cunillera moved to East Falls in 2010, she noticed something changing in the neighborhood. More young families were staying in the city instead of heading to the suburbs when babies arrived. But there wasn’t a place for them to connect. So she started hosting new baby meetups above Vault and Vine, her local coffee shop. She began asking a question she’d been turning over for a while: what if there were a toy library right here? With that, she began Rutabaga Toy Library.

In 2019, Rutabaga Toy Library opened its doors in a 1,000-square-foot space on Conrad Street in East Falls, just months before a pandemic would make community spaces more essential than ever. Today, Rutabaga is a 2026 Philadelphia Family LOVE Award Winner for Best Sustainable Play. The nominations from families across the neighborhood make clear that it is much more than a place to borrow toys.

Each year, the Philadelphia Family team asks readers who they love and why with a ballot that opens in December and runs through Valentine’s Day. Families don’t just vote — they share heartfelt, specific endorsements in their own words. Their stories make the annual LOVE List a sincerely trustworthy collection of referrals, because every nomination reflects a real family’s real experience. Philadelphia Family Members like Rutabaga also collect endorsements year-round directly on their Profile Page.

This year, Rutabaga’s nominations were detailed, personal, and plentiful. Families named specific staff members, described specific moments, and explained exactly how the space changed their experience of early parenthood in the city.

Congratulations Rutabaga Toy Library, Philadelphia Family 2026 LOVE Award Winner – Best Sustainable Play

The Idea That Started with a TV Character

The name Rutabaga came from an unlikely source: a character named Rutabaga from the children’s show Tumble Leaf. “The way my son said Ruta was just so stinking cute and I couldn’t get it out of my head,” Krystal recalled with a laugh. “Rutabaga is a root vegetable, and we’re growing roots in our community.” What began as a sweet family memory became the foundation of a business identity rooted — quite literally — in neighborhood belonging.

Rutabaga operates as a subscription-based membership. Families borrow from a library of 1,800 items for children ages zero to ten, from baby rattles and Lego sets to STEM kits and puzzles. Every item is cleaned and counted. Every piece matters.

“Rutabaga is such a special supportive community for parents and caregivers. They help families provide wonderful experiences while creating a sustainable future by reducing toy waste.”

— Katie Palazzo, Rutabaga member

A Living Room for North West Philly Families

Step inside Rutabaga and you won’t find the industrial feel of a party venue or the echo of a big-box play space. The space is designed to feel like someone’s living room: couches, rugs, warm light, and a kitchen. That intentional coziness is part of what makes Rutabaga’s birthday parties so different from anything else in Philadelphia.

Rutabaga birthday parties are zero-waste by design. The space provides reusable dishes, silverware, cupcake towers, and cloth napkins, made from cut-up t-shirts and washed after every celebration. There’s no Party City run the night before, no garbage bags full of disposable tableware afterward. Families bring their food, use the kitchen, and leave without the mess. A party facilitator helps run the day. And Rutabaga does the dishes.

The LOVE Award nominations speak to how this experience lands with families. One parent described a first birthday party where “kids aged 9 months to 17 years all found something to play with.” Another said the space “struck the perfect balance of togetherness and independence, which is not easy to achieve with a group of young children.” Multiple nominators singled out Haley Friel, Rutabaga’s programming coordinator, for her warmth, communication, and care.

“Krystal Cunillera and her team truly make our neighborhood a community and I am forever grateful.”

— Jo P.W., Rutabaga Nature Arts Camp family

Teaching the Next Generation to Share the World

One of the most powerful things Krystal hopes children take from their time at Rutabaga is a simple but countercultural idea: you don’t need to own everything new. “Teaching children that our belongings aren’t disposable is part of what we do,” she said. “When you borrow a toy, you’re learning to care for it so your friends can play with it next.”

That philosophy carries into Rutabaga’s summer programming as well. The Nature Arts Summer Camp runs ten weeks and uses a local church for outdoor, unplugged exploration of the neighborhood. Campers who started as babies at Rutabaga are now elementary schoolers who know each other from camp, from school, and from play — a testament to the long roots this community puts down. Rutabaga campers even tend a native garden at Thomas Mifflin School, a living model of environmental stewardship for the whole neighborhood.

Rutabaga also offers sliding-scale memberships and a scholarship fund so that families who couldn’t otherwise participate can still access its programs. And for families whose children can’t visit the play space as much, but still want to borrow toys, there’s now a borrow-only membership at a lower price point — because growing up doesn’t have to mean growing away from Rutabaga.

What’s Next: A New Space, a Growing Community

Rutabaga is on the move. With their lease ending and 7+ years of growth behind them, Krystal and her team are relocating to a larger space this fall.

Featuring a larger, multipurpose area, the new space offers more nooks of play and plenty of reachable shelving for Rutabaga’s inventory of toys and books. A separate classroom accommodates parties, Lego club nights, and all the programming that’s been waiting for more square footage. Additional space outdoors provides an area for play and Rutabaga’s nature arts camp.

The community has already rallied around the move, with volunteers offering to help and neighbors following along on social media and via a dedicated landing page on Rutabaga’s website.

The new space also has a parking lot, which will allow Rutabaga to expand memberships beyond East Falls, into neighboring Roxborough, Mt. Airy, and beyond.

As Rutabaga grows, the vision remains the same: fewer things owned, more things shared, and more families finding their people.

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Photos courtesy of Rutabaga Toy Library, as seen in the Best for Families Guide. 
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