Starbucks Helps Bristol's Children Embrace Literacy With Record Book Collection

15.02.2008 16:59:00

Starbucks is celebrating yet another successful chapter of its Bookdrive, a programme run in partnership with the National Literacy Trust to promote literacy in young people. The coffee houses in Bristol have collected more books than ever for children – a record 1798 – smashing the target of 525.

In total, 221,368 books have been collected across the UK and Ireland – over 100,000 more than the target set, and more than 120,000 more than were collected in the 2006 campaign. The books collected are given to schools and either shared amongst the children through their library or given out to them to take home.

Since 1 November 2007, customers have been sharing their favourite stories with local children by donating new or nearly new books to collection boxes in Starbucks coffee houses. Each coffee house has linked up with a local primary school to deliver the books for children to enjoy.

The average primary school library in the UK spends £10.25 per head on books per year1 so the injection of books from Starbucks coffee houses throughout the UK will have a major impact in terms of volumes of books. Statistics from PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2007) show that nearly one in ten (8%) primary school aged children in the UK don’t have any books at home.

Starbucks Bookdrive is run in partnership with the National Literacy Trust and including the 2007 collection, has given more than 420,000 books to local school children since its launch in 2002. Starbucks and the NLT have been working together for more than seven years with the aim of supporting communities by promoting the value of reading from a young age.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the NLT said: “Literacy is a national priority. At the heart of this challenge is the need to motivate children to develop a love of reading. Starbucks makes an important contribution to instilling this love of reading in thousands of children every year. The Starbucks Bookdrive has never before been as big or as significant.”

Jo Wiseman, district manager for Starbucks in Bristol and the surrounding region, said: “Starbucks is passionate about supporting literacy in our local area and we are delighted that so many of our customers in Bristol joined in our programme to make a difference locally. We would like to thank them for their generosity and are proud to be making a difference to even more children this year.”

-ENDS-

Client name: Starbucks

Web link: www.starbucks.co.uk