Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) will hold its annual Food for Fines

The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) will hold its annual Food for Fines week December 6-12.  The Food for Fines program gives patrons an opportunity to help others in our communities while offsetting fines for overdue library materials.

Food collected during the drive will be donated to Arkansas Rice Depot, which has been working to alleviate hunger for more than 25 years, and is serving over 30,000 children in Arkansas this year. 

Rice Depot’s Food For Kids program provides food in backpacks for children to take home from school on the weekend.  Canned meals such as Chef Boyardee-type pasta meals, chili, and tamales are excellent items which provide protein-rich food for those children.  Arkansas has recently been ranked as the state with the highest rate of childhood hunger in the nation.

Patrons are encouraged to bring at least one non-perishable food item for each overdue item to any of the library’s branches in Pulaski and Perry County. However, food items may not be used to negate fines already on record for materials that have been returned prior to Food for Fines week.  

For more information, check our website at www.cals.org.                

CALS libraries in Little Rock include:  Main Library, 100 Rock Street; Dee Brown Library, 6325 Baseline Road; Fletcher Library, 823 North Buchanan Street; Terry Library, 2015 Napa Valley Drive; Thompson Library, 38 Rahling Circle; Williams Library, 1800 Chester Street; and McMath Library, 2100 John Barrow Road. CALS libraries in surrounding communities include: Max Milam Library, 609 Aplin Avenue, Perryville; Maumelle Library, 10 Lake Pointe Drive, Maumelle; Esther D. Nixon Library, 703 W. Main Street, Jacksonville; Amy Sanders Library, 31 Shelby Drive, Sherwood.               

For more information contact Susan Hill Gele at 918-3086.