A St. Catharines elementary school is home to a 'book vending machine' offering free Indigenous-authored books to students.
St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School is the first school in Niagara to receive support through the Indigenous Literacy Enhancement Project.
Start2Finish launched the project in 2022 with four book vending machines in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities across Canada, and has now expanded to an additional 10 communities nationwide.
The official unveiling and ribbon cutting ceremony for the project at St. Nicholas school was held this week.
The project is supported by the Niagara Community Foundation, Future Generations Foundation, First Book Canada, and several Canadian publishers.
The expectation is that every student will go home with two hardcover books or graphic novels per term.
“I am very grateful to Start2Finish for this wonderful opportunity for our students,” said St. Nicholas principal Jacqueline Watson.
“St. Nicholas has a very diverse student population, filled with very eager readers and learners. During these very challenging financial times, some of our families struggle with providing their children with books to keep at home because they are outside of their budget. We are confident that giving students the opportunity to take home books they can call their own will continue to inspire a love of reading and learning. Our school community was very excited to see the new vending machine come in last week and our students look forward to receiving books in the years to come. Thank you to everyone who played a role in making this happen at St. Nicholas, including our Coordinator of Library Information Services, our Indigenous Education team, and our senior leadership, who supported this initiative from the beginning.”