November: Feeding & Reading to the Kids
November in the US is mostly known as the start of the holiday season: the time of year when we try to shift our thoughts toward spending more time with loves ones and giving back to our communities. While Thanksgiving is typically the first celebration that comes to mind, we wanted to highlight other efforts and organizations to help you make a positive impact outside your home and in your community this November:
As a follow up to a week’s celebration in May, Children’s Book Week continues November 6-12. This year’s theme is “Read Books. Spark Change.” It aims to encourage and spread the idea that stories have the power so incite positive change in our individual lives and greater communities.
Children’s Book Week was established in 1919 and is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the US. Each year, the week encourages young people to attend events at schools, libraries, and bookstores, engage with writers and those involved with books both online or in person, or celebrating at home using their collection of resources.
2023 Children’s Book Week features the Find Your Spark Challenge, encouraging young readers to think critically about books as sparks for change inside themselves or their communities.
Sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, the week before Thanksgiving, November 11-18, is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. First held at Villanova University in 1975, the week is designed to “educate the public, draw attention to the problem of poverty, and build up the base of volunteers and supporters for local anti-poverty agencies.” The H&H website contains a multitude of resources on how to organize an event on your college campus or in your community to raise awareness, gather donations, and best concentrate your efforts to best combat food insecurity within the US.
Celebrated during the second week of November each year, November 13-17, 2023 is National Young Readers Week! Starting in 1989–stemming from the ‘BOOK IT!’ program started by Pizza Hut (yes, seriously)–the week-long reading celebration helps raise awareness to the lifelong importance of reading.
Parents are encouraged to help the young people in their lives develop an early passion for reading, books, and literacy!
