For many underprivileged families, getting enough food and clothing to survive is hard enough; establishing a library of books is something that isn’t even on the minds of most.

But Ann Fletcher, an Issaquah resident and reading specialist for the Tahoma School District, would argue the importance of reading, especially for children.

“Early education can help children start out on a more even playing field,” she said. “Early literacy is seen as early intervention, and a way to get kids involved and connected. Kids that love to read are much more invested in school, aren’t misbehaving, and aren’t getting discouraged.” Which is why she is involved with the Book Shelf Program, a project of the Friends of the Issaquah Library that distributes books for free to the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank.

The program — which runs spring through fall — just finished its fourth year, and has distributed more than 7,000 children’s books to families at the food bank.

But due to a lack of funding, its fifth year is in jeopardy.

The program began when the Friends of the Library wanted to develop an outreach program that would provide underprivileged children with books. Through fundraising, Fletcher, coordinator of the program, said the group has collected about $2,000 every year, and the King County Library, which has an emphasis on early literacy, matches that donation with grant money.

That money is used to purchase books. Fletcher said most books come from Scholastic, where the group receives them at a reduced price because of nonprofit status, or at book stores such as Half Price Books.

But the grant money from the library is up this year, and the program is appealing to local business and community service groups for support.

King County Library will provide seed money to different projects, but expects them to develop a dedicated source of funding after time. Fletcher said the Book Shelf Program already received an extra year of support from the library beyond what was expected.

“They need to use that money to fund other programs, which is understandable, and we need to develop a source of funding in this community,” she said.

The program has been a huge success, and Fletcher hopes it can continue.

The Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank was chosen as the Bookshelf program home base for several reasons, Fletcher said: it is a place people go anyway and don’t have to make an extra trip to get to, and it provides children who may not normally have access to books with an assortment of free titles.

Books are grouped into four categories, all representing a different age range, and children can take one book per week.

“People are always so shocked when they don’t have to bring them back,” Fletcher said. “It’s great to see the kids carrying their books around, looking so happy.”

A benefit of the program is that is supplies a substantial amount of books in Spanish. Fletcher said almost 45 percent of the families coming to the food bank are Hispanic, and many of the children don’t speak English.

The program generally goes on hiatus during the winter, but is open when the food bank is open during spring, summer and fall. Fletcher said the best days are during the summer months, when children are out of school and can dig through the bins themselves.

Space is an issue, though, and Fletcher said their presence can sometimes be a burden on food bank employees. Book Shelf operates from a rolling book cart in the food bank’s foyer.

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