Last year First Book made it a goal to reach more kids in need by doubling the number of local schools and community programs in our national network, from 25,000 to 50,000.
We’ve reached that number! Over 50,000 Title I classrooms, early childhood education programs, afterschool programs, museums and libraries, housing authorities, faith-based organizations, military family support programs, health clinics and others are signed up with First Book, and every one of them now has permanent, ongoing access to a steady stream of brand-new, high-quality books and educational resources.
That’s terrific news, and we’re grateful to all the partners and supporters that helped us get there.
But we’re not knocking off work just yet. There are 30 million children in the United States living in low-income homes, and access to books is scarce for far too many of them. There are over 1.3 million programs and classrooms still waiting for us, and we need to reach them all.
Help make that happen! If you know someone who works with kids from low-income families, tell them about First Book. Forward them this blog post, or send them to our website, where they can sign up.
It’s quick, it’s free, and we have brand-new books just waiting for them.


We are not the first people to complain and worry about this issue. So we knew if we were actually going to make a difference we needed a market-driven solution. In short, we needed to put our money where our mouth is.
![[INFOGRAPHIC] The Haves and the Have-Nots](http://blog.firstbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/300_kids-BLOG.gif)



At First Book, we do everything in our power to make sure that kids from low-income families are getting the books they need. So we don’t just drop a box of used books off at the door. We work hard to make sure we offer Newbery and Caldecott winners, popular titles, books that kids want to read. The books are always brand-new, and we let the educators closest to the children make the decisions about which titles their kids will respond to.
We already work closely with leading publishers to provide new books for teachers and program leaders serving children in need. Last year we purchased three million new books from major publishers, which we made available – at significant discounts – to the 50,000 schools and programs in our national network, through 
First Book celebrated two big milestones this year – our 20th anniversary and 