- Book Harvest
- 9 hours ago
- 2 min read
Leon Levine Foundation grants $10M to boost childhood reading
By Kevin Ellis
02/04/2026
The Charlotte-based Leon Levine Foundation will give $10 million in two grants to help childhood literacy. The grants will give thousands of North Carolina families in the state’s most economically distressed counties access to books and literacy support.
The multi-year investments will expand the work of three nonprofit partners — Reach Out and Read North Carolina, Book Harvest, and North Carolina Partnership for Children, backbone agency for Smart Start — to bring early literacy programs to North Carolina families and put more children on the path to kindergarten readiness.
In North Carolina, only 33% of children are ready for kindergarten when they walk through the door, according to a release announcing the grants. The statistics are worse in underserved communities. Early exposure to books and regular shared reading can improve early literacy skills and academic performance. However, more than 60% of low-income families nationwide report they have no children’s books at home.
These grants will bring books to many of those families, meeting them where they are — hospital birth centers, pediatric and family medicine clinics, and in their homes.
The funding helps to layer these early literacy programs together within Tier 1 counties, the 40 counties the North Carolina Department of Commerce deems most distressed, creating a continuum of support for children and their caregivers. The result: a child could receive a library of at least 85 new books by their fifth birthday. “We believe every child can arrive at kindergarten ready to excel when they have the right tools and support,” Tom Lawrence, president and CEO of The Leon Levine Foundation, said. “We know that quality early childhood experiences are the building blocks of opportunity. By strengthening the bond between parent and child through reading, we are fostering the cognitive and emotional development essential for a lifetime of success and self-sufficiency.”
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