How Bookbanks Began
Founding director Emily Rhodes with Director Hattie Garlick. Photo by Charlotte Gray
When Bookbanks Founder Emily Rhodes began volunteering at her local food bank in Dalston, North East London in 2022, she soon noticed that people spent a long time waiting, often alone and at a low ebb.
“I’ve spent my whole life immersed in books - as a reader, writer, critic, bookseller, and running Emily’s Walking Book Club,” says Emily. “So, when I started helping at the food bank, I immediately thought that books could be a powerful way to offer relief. I felt sure that books’ twin powers of inspiration - providing worlds to escape day-to-day life - and connection - being easy conversation starters and forming a common ground between people - could be transformative to guests’ experience of using the food bank.”
Emily spoke to the food bank’s managers, volunteers and guests, culled books from her own overcrowded shelves, put up a few posters asking for local book donations, and finally turned a trestle table into a simple, pop-up bookstall.
The impact was clear. On that first day, she gave out 50 books to the 35 people accessing the food bank, and she listened as people shared their opinions on Lee Child, Charlotte Bronte, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, compared their own versions of recipes to those in the cookbooks, and began to tell their own stories.
“I take books home to read with my son. It’s the best time; we are quiet together … If you haven’t got money, but you have a book, the book is knowledge and knowledge is good,” said Yusuf, Bookbanks Dalston
Emily spent a year running this weekly stall, listening to guests and sourcing as wide a range of books as possible, till it became clear that the concept deserved a wider audience.
Meanwhile, her fellow director, journalist Hattie Garlick, had also been volunteering at her local food bank in South Norfolk, learning both from the team running it and the community using it. Together, they then assembled a fantastic Board of Trustees and - in 2023 - registered Bookbanks as a CIO with the Charity Commission. (Our Registered Charity Number is 1204919.) Today, Bookbanks is established at 6 food banks across London, Norfolk and Manchester, and has distributed over 10,000 books, with more going out at a rate of 1,000 each month.
Now, we need your help. In the next 3-5 years, we plan to partner with 30, across 6 UK regional hubs. This will increase the number of books we give out from 1,000 to 5,000 each month, and give the charity a presence in 1% of the country’s food banks. We cannot do this without your support. Together, we can change the story for thousands of families. Thank you.
