Elementary schools introduce book vending machines
By Olivia Tyler
Click here for updates on this story
CLIVE, Iowa (KCCI) — A vending machine at a Waukee elementary school is serving books instead of snacks, thanks to the Waukee Community Schools Foundation.
Students at Shuler and Waukee Elementary can now take books home for free via the library’s new book vending machine.
“It’s more motivation for kids to read and just creating those lifelong readers,” said Shuler Elementary librarian Nikki Kennedy.
Fifth graders at Shuler got to go first. Kennedy gave them tokens, which she keeps, and they got to choose what books they wanted to read first.
Kennedy said the foundation is now thinking about giving grants to each elementary school in the district so they, too, can have machines.
“I was excited because I don’t have much books at home,” said one student.
“The goal is every year to have every kid on their birthday or their half birthday be able to come down and choose a book as a gift,” Kennedy said.
The vending machine has a few books for each age range in the school, K-5. During the pilot year, it will focus on fifth graders. Next year, they plan to have it ready to serve every kid in the school, with the hope of filling it with as many different books as they can.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.