Bernie's Book Bank

Bernie's Book Bank sources, processes and distributes quality new and gently used children's books to significantly increase Book ownership among under-served infants, toddlers and school-age children throughout chicagoland. Bernie's Book Bank has sourced, processed and distributed more than approximately 23 million quality children's books since december 2009.bernie's Book Bank performs three functions exceptionally well:(1) we source quality new and gently used children's books through partnerships with schools, businesses, Book publishers and distributors. Bernie's Book Bank manages the collection process, taking the burden off of schools and organizations, and maximizing the donations of quality books. (2) we process books in our processing center with the help of a large pool of volunteers (individuals, community service & corporate groups). Each Book is reviewed for quality, sorted into age-appropriate reading levels, "fingerprinted" with the Bernie's Book Bank sticker, and placed into a distribution-ready bag of six books. (3) Bernie's Book Bank distributes bags of books to large populations of under-served children primarily through identified schools (based on free and reduced lunch percentages) and wic (women infant children) programs. Each child served receives a minimum of 12 books per year, every year, until the child completes 6th grade; creating a continuum of distribution from birth through 6th grade.currently, Bernie's Book Bank serves more than 300,000 under served chicagoland children from birth through 6th grade with 12 quality books every year.during 2022, Bernie's Book Bank procured, processed, and distributed 2.3 million books, while welcoming back volunteers on a full-time basis. This resulted in 30,000 volunteer hours and allowed us to celebrate distributing our 23rd millionth Book since our founding in 2009!