Book Vending Machine Project Meant to Boost Reading Literacy

The Kiwanis Club of East Lansing is teaming up with WKAR to focus on reading literacy in the community and install book vending machines in East Lansing schools.

The Kiwanis Club of East Lansing, a service club devoted to improving the quality of life in the East Lansing community, focuses specifically on the needs of children. The motto on the club’s website is “Kids Need Kiwanis.” 

The club and community members met Jan. 31 at Coral Gables restaurant to discuss plans to help combat the literacy issue in mid-Michigan.

The event hosted WKAR Director of Education Robin Pizzo, screened the film “Building the Reading Brain” and discussed Kiwanis’ new “signature project” of placing book vending machines in all East Lansing elementary schools and the middle schools.

The vending machines are not monetary based – they are stewardship based. It is up to the school staff and faculty to decide when a student receives a token for a book. Students could be rewarded with a token for such things as good behavior, kindness or special occasions like birthdays. 

WKAR director of education is dedicated to improving reading literacy.

Around 20 community members, Kiwanis Club members and people from the East Lansing Public Schools district attended the event.

Pizzo was a longtime middle school teacher in the Lansing Public Schools District, a college administrator at Lansing Community College and now works as the director of education at WKAR, the public radio and TV station at Michigan State University (MSU). Having been in the world of education for so long, she is dedicated to emphasizing the importance of reading for children.

“I have been wanting to really talk about the power of the brain and being able to gain early literacy skills and learning acquisition,” Pizzo said. “Especially at a time when [reading literacy of] our children in mid-Michigan, and throughout Michigan, is about 63%, which is a really scary number, not proficient in reading.”

That number rose during COVID, as children struggled to continue their education and reading proficiency. 

Due to the rise in reading insufficieny, Pizzo and WKAR have shifted their focus to reading literacy in Michigan. The organization launched the Michigan Learning Channel to support children learning at home; has created two films – “Right to Read” and  “Building the Reading Brain” – in order to educate people about literacy; and started the WKAR Family Reading Kit program. 

“One of the number one factors in changing a child’s love of literacy is having home libraries,” Pizzo said. “Having books, a wide variety of reading materials, in the home.”

In order to do this, WKAR sends out kits to families that include two age-appropriate books, early childhood education resources, information on education support and hands-on activities for families. The education team collaborates with numerous organizations to distribute the kits to families. 

WKAR has sent out over 17,000 kits and hopes to continue getting books into the hands of children by continuing the program and emphasizing the importance of the book vending machines Kiwanis is implementing in schools.

“It’s just a matter of putting a book in the hands of a child,” Pizzo said.

Pizzo had the audience members watch the film “Building the Reading Brain,” which explores the science of reading and ways to help children in literacy and then opened up for a question and answer segment. 

She answered questions about the reading proficiency level of third graders, funding, reading gaps and how to help. 

“Reading is not an innate ability and I think a lot of our families and community think because they don’t quite remember when they picked up a TV guide and started reading it, that it’s just something that they developed, but it is a learned skill,” Pizzo said. “When we embrace that, we can honestly start to support our children and get them the skills they need.”

Book vending machines in EL schools is Kiwanis’ new signature project.

Kiwanis Vice President Diane Tubbs presented what the club is doing to support local children in reading literacy.

“We’re starting our signature project, it’s a three-year project, to put book vending machines in the schools,” Tubbs said. “We have the first one on order, which is going into Donley [Elementary School], hopefully by the end of February.” 

Each machine costs $7,000 and an additional $2,500 to fill it with books, which was funded by the Kiwanis Club of East Lansing. The machine holds 360 books of different varieties in order to introduce students to the world of reading and get them excited about books.

In Michigan, 40 schools have book vending machines, and Tubbs reached out to all of them asking the pros and cons of the machines for students and the community. 

“All I heard back were pro, pros, pros,” Tubbs said. “One con that a principal told me, that I thought was funny, was that the janitor complained that he has to clean the nose prints and the fingerprints off the machines because the kids are constantly looking in at the books.”

Kiwanis is working with the community to get the book vending machines purchased as quickly as possible and into all schools in the district in order to foster literacy and cultivate a reading culture within the schools. 

“It takes a whole community effort to create the environment where children can thrive as readers,” Pizzo said.