Utilizing public libraries to combat food insecurity is not a new concept. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many public libraries across the country had programs in place to provide meals on the weekends and during summer for children in food insecure households. However, as the pandemic continues, Feeding America projects that over 50 million people—to include 17 million children—will face food insecurity as a result of COVID-19.
As a library, we have been long time supporters of our local food center. However, it wasn’t until the past few years that we actively began to provide programming at the center. It started as one of many places we were looking to try to share information about what the library had to offer, but it turned into something different over time.
There are plenty of libraries around the country who are fortunate to be able to provide food to children in need during the summer. However, if your library that isn’t able to, it doesn’t mean you can’t be part of feeding children’s minds while someone else fills their stomachs!
The Starbucks team worked with the library to create a unique space. This isn’t just another coffee shop stuck into a library, but the design honors the rich history and legacy of the library itself, so library patrons don’t just get a cup of coffee, they get an experience.
The New Port Richey (Florida) Library enriches its customers’ minds and bellies with delicious and healthy food at its weekly farmers market.
Humans are recorders. We’ve been recording things for centuries. We drew everyday life on the insides of caves. We documented the number of livestock we owned. Today, we’ve evolved to journal every aspect of our existence, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. We are what we eat, and as early as the 1st Century, we were recording what we consumed. For twenty-five years, it was Barbara Ketcham Wheaton’s job to curate the cookbook collection at the Schlesinger Library at Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. For twice that amount of time, she has been feverishly creating a database of all the recipes, ingredients, and cookbooks recorded in Europe and America.
Everyone knows one of the best ways to get patrons to attend a program is to include food. Well, why not make food the main focus of the program? There are many ways to do this, and food programs can be used for almost any age group. Some food-based programs can be expensive, but some can be done for a smaller budget.
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