The RSVP Center of Essex and Hudson Counties, a program of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest NJ, is excited to announce that as the recipient of Barnes & Noble Livingston’s annual Holiday Book Drive, they received over 850 books! Books collected will benefit RSVP’s Reading Buddies program, which matches older adult volunteers with elementary school students. Volunteers are reading both virtually and in person this year to improve reading comprehension skills and form an intergenerational bond with their students.

The Holiday Book Drive took place in December 2022 and provided customers the opportunity to donate books to locally designated non-profit organizations. Barnes & Noble, located at 112 Eisenhower Parkway in Livingston, collected books for Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey.

Reading Buddies introduces the love of books and increases literacy in young children. Early literacy is linked with academic achievement, higher graduation rates and enhanced productivity in adult life. Julie Cramer, RSVP program manager, comments, “Reading Buddies has returned to the physical classroom for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. We are so excited to be able to get our volunteers working with students in local Essex and Hudson County schools in person once again. We are so appreciative of the Barnes & Noble holiday book drive, which helps us provide books to our volunteers and students to enhance their experience with the program and promote a love of reading in children.” The program has shown to be very effective in helping to increase literacy, reading comprehension and vocabulary in children grades K-2.

For more information, please call (973) 765-9050 or visit www.jfsmetrowest.org.