Boston’s Asda supermarket has launched a children’s book drive in-store throughout September to support local groups through the Children’s Book Project.
The Children’s Book Project seeks to tackle book poverty and to give every child the opportunity to own their own book. The registered charity believes in empowering the children to choose a book they are motivated to read, and in the power of reading communities. They also put on book gifting events that are inclusive, joyful and have a tangible impact on every family that participates.
One in five disadvantaged children across the UK doesn’t own a book.
This year the charity will gift over 400,000 books to children via their school contacts and other settings. Many of these books come from families happy to find new homes for the books their children have grown out of. By inviting donations on their behalf and running a book drive in its Lister Way store to encourage donations of gently used books, Asda hopes to help to secure a supply of pre-loved books that they will ensure are placed directly in the hands of those families that will benefit most.
Book ownership has been directly linked with improved mental health amongst children and a greater propensity to read for pleasure, whilst reading fluency itself has a significant impact on children’s successful progression through education. The partnership’s aim is to tackle the attainment gap arising from low book ownership.
Asda Boston’s community champion, Stephen Bromby, said: “We know from the findings in Asda’s own Community Tracker research that schools have increasingly become a focus for support. Over half of the customers surveyed believe that Asda and the independent grant making charity, the Asda Foundation, should support local schools.
“This research has helped us to form our latest activity partnership and provides another excellent opportunity for us to really demonstrate that link between our store and the impact we can have on the local community.
“Thousands of children grow up in homes with very few books of their own, sometimes none at all. They have fewer opportunities to lose themselves in a story, for shared reading with a parent, and to discover the world.
“We’d love our shoppers to donate new or pre-loved books to us and we will ensure that they are put straight into the hands of the children that need them most.”
The Children’s Book Project takes donations of books and gifts them to children with very few of their own. They work closely with women’s groups, children’s centres, prisons and schools to gift gently used books to children nationwide, forging links with settings whose communities may benefit most from access to free books.
The donations from members of the public will be collected in a special donation trolley behind the Lister Way store’s checkouts and taken to the Children’s Book Project hubs, where they will be sorted for quality and reading age by volunteers. They are then boxed up and gifted to schools across the UK.
Interested schools can apply to become part of the scheme by completing the form on the charity’s website – http://www.childrensbookproject.co.uk/receive-books
