In Brazil, reading as a habit is not common because of the restricted access to books. On average, each Brazilian only reads 2.1 books per year and 75% of the population has never been to a library. Our goal was to help reverse this situation through private initiative. The Reading Feeds Project aims to make literature available to everyone, regardless of class, in Brazil. It calls on people to donate their books, which will be included in food baskets along with basic food supplies, distributed by Brazilian companies, every month, to all employees on low incomes. The basket is a legally granted benefit and therefore has a range throughout Brazil. The project is the result of a partnership between two companies. CestaNobre, which produces the baskets for many companies, included the donated books, without any additional cost, in the baskets that are distributed to its client’s employees. The bookstore chain Livraria da Vila, was responsible for promoting the project as well as collecting the donated books in its stores. People from throughout Brazil were able to contribute by sending their books by post, or by buying an e-book where the amount paid went directly to buying books to be donated. An integrated campaign was developed to promote the initiative, which immediately attracted the attention of both the public and the media, generating a 100% positive response throughout all social medias and 20,000 donated books.

We managed to avoid bureaucratic issues involved in creating a new bill and we succeeded, by using the Basic Food Baskets as a distribution channel, to bring literature to families with limited access to books. At the same time as there are people in Brazil with nothing to read, there are books left forgotten in thousands of people’s houses. By equating the importance of a book to food essential to our survival, the Reading Feeds Project prompted a debate on the issue of access to reading in Brazil, and it has motivated people to promote and collaborate with the initiative.

With an investment of only US$10,000, we generated almost US$3,000,000 in free media. The ideagot a 100% positive response in social networks and over 7,000 fans. People reached by the press, by the publicity campaign or because of friends were engaged in donating, promoting the initiative and even asking that collection points were installed in other cities – which we will do in a near future. In 2 months, 20,000 books were collected, reaching families with low incomes throughout Brazil. By popular demand, we created a petition to send to the Government to try to turn the idea into law.