by John Mennell

Literacy = freedom + prosperity = dignity = civility. 
As Independence Day approaches, MagazineLiteracy.org is redoubling its efforts to zero in on three focus areas that we know we can broadly replicate to attack illiteracy as a root cause of poverty, and to bring comfort and the joy of reading to children, teens, and adults:
1. mentoring where magazines and comics create a bond around common interests; 
2. domestic violence shelters protecting 35,000+ moms and children every night; and
3. getting reading materials into hands and homes to feed people hungry to read via the vast network of food banks and food pantries. 
We know that with titles for every interest and reading level, magazines and comics are especially powerful for literacy. Reading is Fundamental says that two-thirds of 16 million children living in poverty have no books at home – a stunning statistic that we can change today. 
Your faith and support makes it possible. Join us. Tell the world. 

by Rosemary O’Regan – Cornell Business Review

We have friends in high places – angels in the cloud, rocketeers like our superheroes at Bendyworks, who fuel and light the engines of our global literacy moonshot. Those familiar know that there is actually a rocket scientist at the helm of Bendyworks and another founder who is a generous and wise prophet.

Two-thirds of U.S. kids in poverty – 10 million+ children – live in homes with no books. We can fix that today. 35,000 moms and kids spend each night in a domestic violence shelter. We can bring them comfort tonight.

by John Mennell

Local agency helps combat childhood hunger, summer learning loss
Children’s Hunger Alliance (CHA) distributed 13,000 free children’s magazines to Ohio children as part of their summer nutrition programs.  CHA is working to help prevent childhood hunger, summer weight gain and summer learning loss through programs such as Make Summer Count, a collaboration with other non-profits, corporations and community leaders in Central Ohio.
“It is our belief that children and youth deserve healthy meals and the opportunity to keep learning when school ends,” said Mary Lynn Foster, CEO, Children’s Hunger Alliance.

Greg – a golfing enthusiast – delivers Conde Nast Golf Digest to the Long Island Cares Food Bank
by John Mennell
On September 8th we are celebrating the United Nation’s International Literacy Day, our 10th birthday and the wonderful literacy champions that have made our global literacy mission possible, like Greg Barber. Greg is an infectious, tireless, selfless road warrior for good in the world who runs an eco-friendly printing business and Neil’s Wheels with his son Neil, a vital hunger relief project. The best way to explain Greg’s enormous heart and passion for helping others is to tell the story of how we met.

Realizing the dream – MagazineLiteracy.org Founder John Mennell with Urban League of Greater Madison Young Professionals President Nia Trammell celebrate 120,000+ magazines supplied by Conde Nast for readers via food banks, mentoring, and job training programs. 

Makers and Gearheads Share Favorite Magazines to Inspire Teens to Dream
Madison, WI— Combining sustainability with literacy to celebrate International Literacy Day, Flux Moped and MagazineLiteracy.org have teamed to collect gently read recycled car, biking, outdoor sports, science and technology, and active lifestyle magazines for literacy at their Madison showroom at 710 Williamson Street. The magazines will be delivered to mentoring and job training programs, and homeless students in Madison and nationwide.

We have an enormous task to sort and deliver hundreds of thousands of magazines to new readers in Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York City, and Long Island. This “literacy bee” came together recently in Madison to swarm the stack of recycled magazines to make it disappear into hands and homes via literacy programs. We need more volunteers to get the job done and more literacy agencies to receive magazines for their readers.

By John Mennell
As a teen, I devoured every copy of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that I could get my hands on. It’s one of the reasons that we are so delighted when thousands of copies of these and other magazines show up at MagazineLiteracy.org for teen mentoring programs.

Illustration by Michael Mennell
MagazineLiteracy.org is blessed with amazing amounts of technology and human support that allows us to run lean literacy operations – we are still all volunteers – pushed to the limit and eager to bring a truly automated, crowdfunded global marketplace to life to reach our full potential.
We know that magazines are enormously powerful for literacy – with titles for every reading age and interest, and especially valuable for engaging reluctant readers.

“…to challenge young girls… challenge them to enjoy and make the utmost of those few and precious years of childhood”

– Don and Jane Evans via Marilyn Edwards

Media Release
Madison, WI— At 16, John Mennell, founder of MagazineLiteracy.org, and a friend cleaned out an abandoned school to create a teen center for their hometown.

Make a donation today and we will use 100% of it to get magazines you love to read and share to at-risk readers via food pantries, job training, mentoring, and other literacy programs.
Thank you!
 

by John Mennell
MagazineLiteracy.org has received a gargantuan gift of up to 150,000 issues of Boy’s Quest, Hopscotch for Girls, and Fun for Kidz magazines for delivery to at-risk children via food banks and mentoring programs. The collaboration was made possible by Marilyn, Tom, and Jonathan Edwards – a long-time publishing and children’s media family, based in Bluffton, Ohio.

Doug Forrestal at Ryleco Displays has big ideas, a big heart, and is a man who takes action – he sees what can be and asks why not?
We have a mantra at MagazineLiteracy.org – iMAGine what’s possible, and make it so! When Doug learned about our need to distribute magazines for literacy, he immediately reached out to make “speed table” and other POP displays available for magazine distribution to readers in job training programs, food pantries, homeless and domestic violence shelters and other literacy programs. The timing could not have been more perfect, as we have been searching for an easy way to set up magazine distribution for literacy via onsite “newsstands” and “coffee tables.” Doug’s ingenuity and generosity has essentially created our “POP-up Literacy” program!
Doug’s impact stretches even further – from coast to coast. On his own initiative, Doug has been making deliveries of Food Network Magazine to the CHEFS culinary job training program for homeless people in San Francisco. Teaming with distributors for Hearst, Doug has extended that program to the Food Service Training Academy at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey that trains hundreds of people for culinary jobs.  Program directores tell us that the magazines help culinary students learn contemporary food preparation and presentation skills, and recipe skills, and even math skills that get them ready for the job market.
We know that people love to read and share magazines and that, with titles for every age level and interest, magazines are especially powerful for literacy. There are 16 million children in poverty in America. Two-thirds of children in poverty live in homes with no books.
Doug’s good deeds underscore the idea that there is a role for every person in every corner of the magazine publishing industry to play in our literacy mission to get magazines into the hands and homes of at risk readers.
Thank you Doug for showing us the way to change the world – one magazine – one reader at a time!
Join us.