MERIDIAN, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – Students at Poplar Springs Elementary School now have a new way to get their hands on books — through a vending machine.
The school held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning to celebrate the installation of the machine, which was funded by 1st Mississippi Federal Credit Union.
“We are very excited about the book vending machine,” said librarian Bridget Purdy. “This is something that one of our parents discovered that some of the other schools in the area were doing, and she reached out to me and said would you be interested in having a book vending machine on campus, and we of course jumped on that opportunity and said absolutely we would love that.”
The vending machine will serve as part of a student reading incentive program.
“They’ll have to meet goals,” Purdy said. “The teachers will set certain goals for them with their reading levels and the amount of time that they’re reading, and their grade level of course. Each grade reads different amounts. As they meet those goals, they earn those coins, and they’ll get to take a book home that they get to keep forever.”
Purdy said the program aims to spark a lasting passion for reading.
“Instilling that love of reading — that’s something that’s harder and harder to instill in children in a digital age,” she said. “So, anything that encourages them to pick up a book and read and continue with that curiosity… the goal is to just keep pushing that love for reading for our students.”
Principal Yolanda Davis said the project is about more than rewarding students.
“We’re excited to be partnering with families and community partners, but we’re excited to have an incentive that’s tied to reading, and it also puts books in our students’ hands,” Davis said. “We know everything is tied to reading, whether it’s math, social studies, science — we want to make sure our students are exposed to as many topics and titles as possible.”
Davis said she hopes the idea will expand. “Absolutely, not only here at Poplar Springs, but all of our elementary and middle schools here in the district, and even our high schools. Our high schoolers love to read as well,” she said.
The concept came from second-grade parent Tori Moore, who spotted a similar vending machine at another school.
“I grew up in a family where reading was important… but there’s something magical about holding that book in your hand and realizing you’re in a whole new place,” Moore said.
After seeing the machine, Moore began making calls. “I thought that would be perfect for our school… I realized I had a great asset with 1st Mississippi Federal Credit Union, my father works there, and I asked him if he would mind funding the machine with their community outreach program,” she said.
Moore said the idea became reality faster than she imagined. “It doesn’t feel real. I didn’t think me wanting books in children’s hands was going to come to this,” she said.
She noted that books for the machine can be funded through Scholastic dollars from book fairs and orders. “The next time your kid brings a Scholastic piece of paper home, look into it. Buy some books. You might help get another kid a book,” she said.
For 1st Mississippi Federal Credit Union, the project was an investment in the community.
“The Credit Union, you know, we try to find needs in our community and address them, and this was a very unique approach,” said Jerome Trahan, the credit union’s director of marketing. “The pricing is around $7,000 per unit… and we felt like that was a reasonable amount of money to invest in our children and the school system.”
Trahan said more machines are already planned, including one for Carver Elementary and another in Clarke County.
“Literacy is tied to being successful,” he said. “Kids that read books, the data tells us, do better in school and better in life. So, we felt like this was a great investment in our children, and we’re looking forward to doing more throughout the rest of the school system.”
