Read Manchester’s Festive Book Gifting project this year was a huge success, with a total of 12,956 Books gifted across 140 different settings!
We worked with a wide variety of different organisations, including:
Food Banks
A massive 4213 books were gifted to 29 Foodbanks, Community Grocers and other organisations across the city who run other types of food provision for those in food poverty. We know that food provision is a priority for many Manchester families, so books may not be high on their agenda. By providing books at the same time and venue as they collect their food, it means that we can get books into the hands of our most disadvantaged children, and the feedback we get is that the parents are very grateful as they can use the books as Christmas gifts.
‘Books are an amazing addition to our food parcel and have been greatly received in the previous years we have been fortunate enough to be gifted them from yourselves’.
– Manchester Central Foodbank
‘It allows us to provide more than emergency food to local people in poverty.’
– Burnage food bank
Children’s Centres
1350 early years books were gifted to 32 Manchester Surestart Children’s Centres- they used the books to gift to their most vulnerable families in time for Christmas. One of the Family Hubs requested books for attendees of their Teen Antenatal clinic- we also sent them some books for the parents-to-be. The Surestart worker was extremely grateful, and said she was so focussed on books for the babies, that she hadn’t considered also gifting to the parents.
Libraries
1016 books were gifted to 22 Manchester Libraries- most of these were given to attendees at our the weekly Storytimes.
Parks and Neighbourhood events
1745 books were gifted to parks and in conjunction with Council Neighbourhood Officers for various winter and Christmas lights switch-on events.
Charities, Community Groups and more
We gifted to nearly 50 other settings working in a wide range of areas, including mental health charities, homelessness support, domestic violence support, Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) services, local community groups, youth organisations, care leavers and fostering services.
We were able to share books with children and families who may not be able to prioritise the buying of books. To be gifted new books is like being gifted a little bit of treasure, it sparks imagination, an opportunity to learn and a bit of escapism.
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Parents were really grateful, one parent said, ‘My child loves to read at school, to have some new books of her own at home will make her so happy.’ The quality and variety of the books was also commented on, every parent found a book they would like for their child.
– Barnardo’s Support Services
“Thank you so much, books are his favourite”
“He’s really trying to learn new words, what a perfect gift”
“My daughter aged 10 loves looking at pictures, she struggles to understand words, but can follow books with pictures. Thank you so much!”
– Quotes from parents/carers of SEND children supported by SPACE Group (Supporting Parents and Carer’s Endeavour)
Visiting Food Banks
Read Manchester staff and volunteers visited several food banks to hand out books and talk to service users. We visited Rainbow Surprise in Crumpsall, Lighthouse Baby Bank in Wythenshawe and North Manchester Kindness Community Food Pantry in Newton Heath. It was wonderful to see these organisations in action and speak directly to people in the community about the value and importance of books, stories and reading.
Literacy Champion Volunteer Kim at Rainbow Surprise
The project manager from Rainbow Surprise in Crumpsall said:
“Most of our service users are on low income and books are the last thing they would buy. As an organisation it was so nice to have the team here and see happy faces walking away with amazing books. We received 100% positive feedback where people said they feel cared for and really appreciated the offer.”
A Huge Thanks to Volunteers
We’d like to thank all of the volunteers who have helped to make this year’s book gifting project a success, including our Read Manchester Literacy Champions who support us at events and through preparing and packing books at our book gifting HQ, and our corporate volunteers and supporters.
We’d also like to thank the Manchester Libraries Trust for supporting our Christmas book gifting programme with a successful fundraising appeal this winter, as well as everyone who generously donated money to help ensure we can continue to provide books for Manchester children who need them most.
Read Manchester is a partnership between the National Literacy Trust and Manchester City Council to raise literacy levels and change the life stories of children, young people and adults across the city.
You can find out more at our website and follow us on Facebook here.