Literacy starts with community

​Strong literacy skills start with exposure and access to reading materials. At The Story Orchard, we collect new and used books for all reading levels and put them in the hands of kids, families, community members and teachers in north Minneapolis.
 
Whether we’re buzzing around North Minneapolis on our Book Bikemobile handing out a few titles at a time to neighborhood kids at the park or helping local teachers stock up their classroom library The Story Orchard connects our community members through choosing reading materials, cultivating literacy skills, and growing their own success.

Services We Provide

Book Bikemobile
Our Book Bike Mobile gets out and about every summer at community events, block parties, and more to share the fun of reading and bring books to our community! Reading is a shared experience that unites and connects.  So far, we’ve distributed more than 7,000 books!

Books for Schools
Every classroom needs books, but educators don’t always receive the funding they need to get them there. That’s where the Story Orchard comes in. We do the legwork of collecting donated books and curating new book collection and then open up our book room to educators who can come in and take the titles that are right for their students.

Book Source: Community book room
Our community book is a place to connect with others, have fun, learn and most importantly, get books! The book room provides new and used books free of charge to all community members. Soon, we will be selling books by local authors!

Coming soon:

Pre-school and Early Childhood Family Education Programs

• Monthly pre-school and family story hour

• Monthly art, music, math, and science projects and programming

• Embedded positive parenting education and family support

Youth and Teen Programs

• Weekly book clubs

• Monthly art and engineering projects and programming

• Monthly coding projects

Adult Programs

• Book clubs

• All-level writing classes including poetry, personal narrative, and fiction

• Family and parenting groups

Occasional Opportunities

• Financial literacy classes

• Adult English language conversation groups

• Sessions on navigating the public school system and special education

• Push-in services to local schools, community centers, and other non-profi