Donate a Book, Help a Child Discover Joy of Reading

President Obama’s call to service United We Serve is focusing on a summer initiative: Let’s Read. Let’s Move.

In response, the Northern California office of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is holding a book drive for children of low-income families in the East Bay.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America programs, and also leads President Obama's national call to service initiative United We Serve.

According to CNCS, “While in middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of age-appropriate books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods the ratio is 1 for every 300 children.”

During the summer, school-aged young people can lose two to three months of progress in academic achievement, particularly in reading and other literacy skills. The goal of the book drive is to get books into the hands of children who have little or no access to books, to help them retain what they have learned during the summer. 

The book drive runs from July 15 to the end of August. Donors may bring gently-used books during the drive to various locations, including Oakland City Center, the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building, the Elihu M. Harris State Building, and other City of Oakland buildings.

There will also be donation bins in various, yet-to-be-determined San Leandro locations. (They will be announced on Patch soon.)

The drive is accepting children’s books, but not encyclopedias, religious books, textbooks or library discards.

The books will be donated to the East Bay Children’s Book Project, which will distribute them to disadvantaged children though organizations such as food banks, homeless shelters, pediatric clinics, youth service organizations and literacy programs.

If you represent an organization that works with disadvantaged children, contact East Bay Children’s Book Project to learn how to receive books.

Please spread the word and be sure to donate books! Every book counts.

What You Can Do:

• Donate books to the drive.
• Place a collection bin at your workplace. Contact tessa@sledfund.org for information and help.
• In addition to collecting donated books, CNCS is also looking for volunteers to help sort books at the end of the book drive on Sept. 11, a national day of service. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

Follow San Leandro Patch on Facebook and Twitter.