Food for thought: Boys & Girls Club of Dalton unveils book vending machine

Jul. 4—"This is fun," third-grade student Ariana, 8, said Friday as she inserted a gold, inchworm-emblazoned coin into the slot of a vending machine at the Boys & Girls Club of Dalton.

But instead of browsing for juice boxes, chips or candy bars, she was searching for food for the mind.

Ariana, alongside other children at the Boys & Girls Club, now has the opportunity to pick out books from the newly-installed Inchworm book vending machine in the lunchroom. Functioning similarly to a typical vending machine, the Inchworm dispenses books from varying reading levels and genres, giving those who use it a multitude of options to best suit their tastes.

"I like the comics," said Kaylee, a second-grader. "They are fun to look at."

"My favorite books are the chapter books," Ariana exclaimed. "Like the ones where kids go on adventures looking for the Titanic."

The machine does not take cash or credit. Instead, all that is needed is a specialized gold coin, which is handed out to children based on their behavior and good deeds or on special occasions like birthdays.

The project is new to the Dalton area, but this is not its first foray with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Georgia.

"We started (the book vending machine project) in Chattooga County through a grant about two years ago and the kids fell in love with it," said Robbie Slocumb, the chief executive officer of Boys & Girls Clubs in Whitfield, Murray, Chattooga and Gordon counties. "Talking with our director over there, we said, 'Let's do this at even more places.' We have four counties and seven locations that we serve, and we have one book vending machine in each county right now."

One of the main focuses for the Boys & Girls Clubs "the past few years (is) working with kids on literacy," Slocumb said. "We saw the big impact during COVID and how it hurt so many kids academically. Our goal is to get libraries at every club site and provide other resources to where kids can have access to books. That is where the book vending machines come into play."

Casey Crump, the director of grants and foundations for the Boys & Girls Clubs in Northwest Georgia, said the project "pairs well" with some of their other programs.

"We have a program called Power Hour, which is a homework help program," said Crump. "The kids participate every day after school for about an hour. We have incentives where if they participate well for the week, or through three weeks out of the month, they get a Power Hour party. There, they can earn a coin, get a brand new book from the vending machine and take it home and keep it. It's a good motivator for them."

The steps needed to help the vending machine project come to fruition came into place post-COVID-19, according to Crump.

"We saw a lot of opportunity for literacy funding because of the impact (COVID had) negatively on our youth," Crump said. "They were delayed in reading and were behind grade level, so we did the research and found the grants we needed to fund the machines, as well as fund the books that go in the machines and the restocks. We're ready to go for a little while."

According to Crump and Slocumb, giving children easy access to books is important.

"The books are through Scholastic so they're the most up-to-date, modern books that you would have an opportunity to get at a book fair. However, a lot of our children don't have the means to purchase them," said Crump. "This is a way for them to receive some for free."

Slocumb said he not only wanted to help local children meet reading goals in his professional capacity, but also on a personal level after seeing firsthand how promoting literacy affects today's children, and the opposite.

"We had a kid who was misbehaving and having some problems in the summer of 2021," he said. "So I sat him down in my office and just talked with him. He was going into third grade that year, and I told him, 'While you're here, just read this book,' and I gave him the 'Dr. Seuss's ABC' book. He told me he couldn't read it. I asked him to work on writing his name, and he could barely write it. So you look at that and see how a kid, if they're not prepared, can get pushed back academically."

"Ultimately, we want to help make a positive impact on them through this project," Slocumb said. "We couldn't do this without people who support the aspect of (child literacy)."

Crump agrees.

"This has the opportunity to create a ripple effect, and impact our whole community," she said.

Installation of these modified vending machines could pop up more frequently in the community, Slocumb believes, which could potentially lead to an uptick in child literacy rates in the area.

"We have families that have multiple kids here," said Slocumb. "So they not only get to take home one book, but two or more, and now they've built a little mini-library at their house. We want to educate our kids and see them be able to read (at their respective reading level). If we can help in that process of making reading fun, making it accessible and a priority, it will help propel them to bigger and better things."

"Most of our kids are struggling with reading," said Crump. "That's why we try to make it more engaging. They can choose between sticker books, comic books, higher reading books, whatever we can supply to make it interactive and enjoyable for them to read."

It appears to be working.

"The coins are so cool," said Kaylee, 7, as she ran excitedly to pick out the new installment in the "Pete the Cat" series. "I like using them to get the books. It makes it fun."