There should be no barriers to the joy of reading. All children, whatever their race, background or economic situation have amazing imaginations and a thirst for stories.
That's why when I set out our trestle table in Alexandra Park offering the books my children had grown out of free to local children it struck me that we were giving away books to families who could afford them. Wouldn't it be better to get these books to children who didn't have access to new stories?
So I contacted the local Epsom Food Bank and the Trusell Trust and they agreed to take a box of children books every month to offer to the families who visited the food bank. We wanted to nourish the minds as well as the bellies of disadvantaged children across Epsom. I also contacted all the local primary schools in Epsom and arranged a drop off morning where parents could meet me and donate their preloved books to the Book Bank. The schools also used this as an opportunity to offload there surplus books by donating to us. We amassed 3000 books in a very short space of time.
The Book Bank Group has also donated to the Surrey Youth Cabinet, a group of democratically election young people working with Surrey County Council. The SYC have redistributed books from The Book Bank to worthy causes.
The Book Bank will continue to work with food banks and is looking to expand to more food banks across Surrey. We are also developing a Book Fair event that will target disadvantaged children and expose them to boundless stories and adventures to inspire them.