[Publib] Food for fines revisited

[Mary Soucie]

Janet,At my previous library, we have done various versions of this idea. My
favorite was when our charity of choice was the humane society so we set up
a large dog cage to collect donations in. For the food drives, we would get
a grocery cart from a local supermarket or Ace Hardware.

We would waive $1 in fines for every non-perishable item brought in. We did
not check for expiration dates or value of food. We felt that was up to the
patron's conscience. We didn't usually have a problem with expired food so
it wasn't an issue for us.

We've tried different methods over the years in terms of value and found the
"$1= 1 item" to be the simplest method for patrons and staff alike. We too
often had patrons contribute that weren't even paying off fines.

It's a great opportunity for the library to give back to the community.

Good luck and let us know how it goes,
Mary

On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Janet Cavanagh <
jcavanag at russell.lioninc.org> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> My director wants very much to have a "food for fines" drive.   I have
> searched the archives but only found one item, under a discussion on library
> promotion and it was an academic library.   I am sure this topic has come up
> here so I apologize.  Could you give me some pros and cons?  Russell Library
> is a middle public library.
>
> I have visions of someone bringing in a turnip because he had the first
> season of the Sopranos out for 6 months.
>
>
> Much appreciated.
>
> --
> Janet Cavanagh
> Circulation Department
> Russell Library
> 123 Broad Street
> Middletown, CT 06457
> 860-347-2528
>
> _______________________________________________
> Publib mailing list
> Publib at webjunction.org
> https://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib
>
>


-- 
Have a great day!

Mary

Mary J. Soucie, MLIS
Library Director
Three Rivers Library District
Channahon/Minooka IL
25207 W Channon Dr     PO Box 300
Channahon IL  60410
815-467-6200 x303
815-467-4012 Fax
Yahoo IM: trldirector
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20091002/063f22fc/attachment.htm>