Books To Kids began as part of Plenty’s response to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005. A Plenty volunteer from Nashville, Tennessee, Jim Selin, saw that schools, families and community centers had lost tens of thousands of books in the flooding. He began 
collecting and distributing books along the Gulf Coast as a way to help children move beyond the trauma they had experienced. From this early effort, Jim started raising donations, and Books To Kids was born. Soon after, BTK became a project of Plenty.
For much of the project’s history, three to four book distribution trips took place annually to sites in the Gulf coast and in Middle Tennessee. BTK later expanded in 2019, providing books to other Plenty partners to distribute including Plenty Belize in Central America and at Pine Ridge reservation (Lakota Territory) in So. Dakota. Most books are now shipped to sites by mail.
Book acquisition operates year round. Books are chosen utilizing guidelines regarding illustrations, language, and content. Volunteers help with acquisition, distribution and related tasks, such as
Thank you to all Books To Kids volunteers and supporters!
Very special thanks to The Ella Fitzgerald Foundation, which shares a passion for children’s literacy and provides many wonderful books to participating Books To Kids sites.
Plenty is a not-for-profit organization that was created to help protect and share the world’s abundance and knowledge for the benefit of all.
