Stop the Waste

In a partnership with Discover books, Bookchurch is working to develop an expansion project that will allow more warehouse space, donation locations, and engagement with even more local non-profits. A recent interview of Bookchurch board members in the Coastal View News elaborates a bit on the current vision of the organization.

Karsen Gould, the Creative/Executive Director of Arts for Humanity reached out to partner with Bookchurch.org with a nice book donation. Their program 'Have You Had Your Art Today' is a great way to schedule art-focused, virtual projects. Additional art focused books have been donated to Roxanne's in Carpinteria.

Bookchurch partnered with Apples to Zucchini, a non-profit cooking school in Santa Barbara to begin donating cook books, chef biographies and memoirs, and wine related material at the beginning of 2023. This is an area of waste in a lot of donation boxes, but when given to an organization with people passionate about food, new chefs and continuing education participants can get access to the material!

 Several stores have asked to donate their overstock, and Bookchurch is more than happy to assist in the removal and recycling of books. This has led to a solid inventory for the start of 2023. As we expand our network to include a non-profit cooking school we are now going to be supplying cookbooks and reference material to them in an effort to get the right books into the right hands.   

 With a successful partnership with Seattle-based Books to Prisoners, Bookchurch was able to double the amount of books sent during the holiday season. We feel that holidays can be a lonely time, and books are known to fix that - we hope that they are a positive force for those incarcerated seeking self improvement.   

  Several weeks before Hispanic Heritage month, Bookchurch connected with Empowering Latino Futures, an organization heavily invested in promoting literacy and creativity in the Latino community.

 Bookchurch  will be working with ELF in the future to assist in focused donations that will help fill the needs of the organization. 

 Bookchurch  reached out to Planned Parenthood Santa Barbara to donate to the Mary  Jane McCord book sale. (9/15 - 9/25) Book donations were so high this  year that they couldn't accept any more physical books. We 

decided to sponsor a table instead making a monetary donation to Planned Parenthood.

Bookchurch and Polyverse took a trip to Seattle this last summer to visit  bookstores and literary locations.

During  a trip to Left Bank Books in Pike's Market, Bookchurch founder, Louis  Force Torres was introduced to the book donation program Books to Prisoners.

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If you love comics, or your children do, Free Comic Book Day is a big deal. Many comic shops celebrate this chance to bring free comics to young readers. In July, Bookchurch donated a collection of comics to Dream World Collectibles in Santa Barbara to help support children's readership.

 In June, Louis Torres journeyed to North Carolina to donate copies of Amad the Moroccan Tree Goat, to the Appalachian Regional Library system in Watauga County, specifically for their children's reading events, where they often bring live animals to meet the kids!

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Goleta based group, WYF brings children out into nature to teach them about plants and animals in Santa Barbara County. Bookchurch  reached out with a donation of animal based Kid's Books and is preparing another donation of Naturalist and Field guides specifically for Santa Barbara and surrounding regions.

The friends of the Carpinteria Library Bookstore accepts book donations to help fund the local branch of the library. Bookchurch has made repeated donations to their store - and plans to continue!

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The small free-library boxes are wonderful for communities. Bookchurch works with Polyverse Publications to browse collections and then return with titles to fill space, or round out missing subjects or genres.