Ginger Young, founder and executive director of Book Harvest, said the premature end of last school year combined with the psychological stressors of isolation and uncertainty made the pre-existing risk of summer learning loss even greater.
“Students were seeing their school year change profoundly in that moment, and we also knew it was quite likely they would not be in school as early as this fall, which meant they were looking at a runway from April through August with no conventional classroom experience,” Young said.
In March, Book Harvest set a goal of donating 75,000 books to children in the Durham area by the end of August. Book Harvest announced on Sept. 1 it had surpassed its goal by donating 83,881 books in that time frame. The organization averaged 548 book donations per day.