Contact: readingseeds@uuroanoke.org

Founded in 2012, Reading Seeds is UUCR’s home-grown children’s literacy program. Reading Seeds aims to provide children from low-income families in Roanoke a better chance at reading success by helping them build their home libraries. Research strongly indicates that having books in the home supports skills development. Reading itself cultivates self-growth and empathy.

The Reading Seeds team member who orders our books is a former school and children’s librarian. Her selections have essential themes of identity, friendship, feelings, sharing, healthy living, community, homes, peace, nature, and basics such as colors, shapes and numbers. 

Some of Our Projects

• Reading Seeds donates new, age- and theme-appropriate books to pupils (infants through age 5) in two Total Action for Progress (TAP) Head Start Centers. TAP Head Start is a preschool and childcare program that serves working families living in poverty. 
• We donate books twice a month to the Raleigh Court and Brand Hardin Sims centers, averaging 135-150 books per delivery. Each book includes a Reading Seeds/UUCR bookplate, so each child’s name can be inscribed on the book he, she, or they receive.
• In the 2025-26 school year, we will also have made three deliveries of new books to pre-K through fifth-grade Pack-a-Snack recipients at Grandin Court, Wasena, Virginia Heights, and Fishburn Park elementary schools, in partnership with the Southwest Roanoke City Congregations in Action committee, of which we are a church member. (Pack-a-Snack is a food-gap support program that provides take-home snacks to children who are enrolled in federally assisted lunch programs.)
• When we accumulate excess books, we donate them to Alexa House (Family Promise of Greater Roanoke), The Hope Center, or The Rescue Mission of Roanoke, to help stock their children’s areas.

Our Funding

We buy most of our books from First Book Marketplace, a nonprofit online resource exclusively for schools and programs that serve children in need. First Book makes the books available at a significant discount (approximately $4 to $7 each).

Our annual budget is approximately $15,000, which includes over $14,000 in book purchases. We receive funds from grants, donations from church members and friends, occasional fundraisers and UUCR’s annual operating budget (when available). 

We have no overhead expenses. The church provides our storage and workspace, and all our funds go toward purchasing books and buying labels for bookplates.

How You Can Help

Donate! Choose whichever option works best for you:

• Option 1: Checks may be made payable to UUCR with Reading Seeds in the memo line, and mailed to Reading Seeds, UUCR, 2015 Grandin Rd., Roanoke VA 24015. Tax receipts are available upon request. 
• Option 2: Drop your donation in the box attached to the church office door.  Please indicate Reading Seeds on your check or on the envelope if you are donating cash. 
• Option 3: Online via UUCR’s donation portal. Be sure to use the donation field titled “Mission Group — Reading Seeds.”

Volunteer!

If you are interested in getting involved, email us at readingseeds@uuroanoke.org. 

• We can use your assistance in processing and delivering the hundreds of books that arrive with each order. We meet for about 1.5 hours, approximately every two months, in the fellowship hall. 
• Do you enjoy reading aloud to young children? We can use you on our reading teams in classrooms at Raleigh Court Head Start or Brand Hardin Sims Head Start once or twice a month, for one hour each time. Training is provided.  If grant writing is in your skill set, we can use your expertise.  We are constantly scouting for grant opportunities to continue the Reading Seeds mission.