Pinellas County’s Summer Book Bus Expands, Combats Learning Loss With Free Books and Meals

The Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County is visiting 85 locations this month to hand out over 10,000 free books to children through the Summer Book Bus program. This work, a partnership with Pinellas County Schools, reaches infants through teenagers at summer camps, public libraries, early learning centers, apartment complexes, and recreation centers.

The tour includes stops in St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, Pinellas Park, and other areas across the county. Children get two books each. They can choose from graphic novels and titles about outer space, animals, and princesses.

“Summer is a critical time because many kids lose important literacy and reading skills when they’re out of school,” said Brianna Ray, JWB community collaborations coordinator, according to St. Pete Catalyst. “With this project, what we’re doing is bringing books to them, we’re encouraging reading, and we’re helping to prevent that summer learning loss while making reading something that is fun and also attainable.”

Ray said that “reading just 20 minutes a day every day makes a huge difference when kids go back to school in August.” The recipients keep the books and build their own personal libraries.

Representatives from the MyON street team have been taking part in the effort. The digital reading platform offers more than 8,000 books. It’s available free to children from birth through 5th grade through a partnership between JWB, the school district, and United Way Suncoast.

Food has been provided at some stops through the Pinellas Childhood Hunger Collaborative. In 2025, JWB introduced the Meal Mobile, a pop-up food pantry stocked by the St. Pete Free Clinic. Around 4,000 boxes of shelf-stable food were handed out during last year’s program.

This marks the ninth year of the Summer Book Bus Program. Ray explained the effort is part of the Early Readers, Future Leaders: Pinellas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, which launched by JWB and partners.

The campaign works on five key factors: school readiness, school attendance, summer learning, parent and family engagement, and healthy readers. Over 10,700 books were given to children during last year’s program.

“Our vision is that all kids are reading on grade level by 3rd grade,” Ray explained. “We’re looking at that specific indicator because it’s our earliest and best predictor of high school graduation and future success.”

Read the article as originally published at https://925maxima.com/2026/07/23/pinellas-countys-summer-book-bus-expands-combats-learning-loss-with-free-books-and-meals/