Changing the world… one Google click at a time!

Thanks to advertising and sponsored web links donated by Google Adwords, we’ve noticed a significant increase in web traffic and contacts from people and business owners who want to support MagazineLiteracy.org programs. Our most important and mission critical task is reaching more people who want to help to find and support literacy needs in their own communities. Our mission is to connect generous donors of time, magazines, and financial support to opportunities that support children and families learning to read. To-date, we have received over 17,000 clicks from over 1.4 million web ads provided by Google. Together with Google, we are changing the world – one click… one magazine at a time!

Whole Foods KinderHarvest launch is readied for International Literacy Day

To celebrate International Literacy Day, an event that occurs on September 8th each year, and the start of the new school year, the Whole Foods Markets in Princeton New Jersey and Brighton, near Boston Massachusetts, will join with MagazineLiteracy.org to kick-off the KinderHarvest magazine recycling drive for literacy. These Whole Foods Market locations are the first in the nation to rollout a KinderHarvest magazine recycling drive year-round for children and families learning to read. Wooden harvest bins will be placed in the stores to collect the recycled magazines from consumers, which will be given to at-risk children and families in nearby homeless and domestic violence shelters, and delivered to families in grocery bags at food pantries.

By collecting magazines from those who love to read them and sending them to new readers, the effort combines a concern for environmental issues with a concern for literacy that is resonating with consumers and business owners alike.

KinderHarvest, the first effort of its kind, is like food gleaning, a practice that is thousands of years old, where crops left in the field are gathered by humanitarians to feed hungry people. Except, this harvest gleans magazines that would have ended up at the curb to feed children and families hungry to read and succeed, recycling the magazines we all love to meet local literacy needs. KinderHarvest combines the three R’s of education with the three R’s of recycling to promote the three R’s of magazine literacy: Read, Rescue, and Reuse.

Changing the world – one magazine at a time

The mightiest oak grows from a single acorn; the mightiest wave, from a single ripple. Thus, we’ve changed our MagazineLiteracy.org tag line to – “Changing the world – one magazine at a time,” because it speaks to the enormous power that the contribution of even a single magazine, an hour of volunteer time, or a dollar of financial support can have. As illustrated in one very special letter that one of many very special volunteers received about one boy in a Boston homeless shelter – a single magazine can change the life of a child and bring joy to a whole family.

“Feeding children and families hungry to read and succeed” has not been retired. It’s been moved to a new job as tag line for our national KinderHarvest magazine recycling program.

I stopped by to check on one of our KinderHarvest bins recently and there was only one magazine in it during a period of time that most other bins would be overflowing. The shopkeeper was concerned about it and even apologetic. I explained how tremendously valuable that single magazine will be to a child or to a family that arrives at a homeless or domestic violence shelter with no possessions. One single act of generosity inspires two, or three, or ten. Those inspire two more, or three more, or ten more each. That single magazine sitting in the bin will be noticed by someone who will be curious about why it’s there. Someone who sees it will go home and bring back their wonderful magazines to help fill the bin. It reminds me of the food drives that I’ve been organizing in front of supermarkets for over two decades. We begin in the early morning with an empty grocery cart greeting shoppers on their way into the store. After a short while, a single jar of peanut butter, or jar of baby food, or box of oatmeal is placed in the cart. That catches the eye of new shoppers who put more and more food in the cart – sometimes, whole bags filled with groceries; often, more than they keep for themselves. By the end of the day; we have twenty or more overflowing grocery carts of food for nearby hungry families.

Help us change the world – one magazine at a time!