Read it Forward: Books for Bookbanks

Not everyone has access to books, and sometimes playing it forward can make all the difference. We’re proud to be partnering with Bookbanks, a charity that brings books to foodbanks.

You can find out about Bookbanks below, or on their website. We will match any donations to our ‘Read it Forward’ scheme, and twice a year (or when we reach £200, whichever is sooner) we will donate the value in books to Bookbanks.

If you would like to contribute to the Read it Forward scheme, please get in touch or buy a gift card, making sure to add ‘Bookbanks’ to the comment section of your order. Another way to support the scheme is by buying a copy of the Renard Press: Five Years anthology, as all proceeds go to this scheme.

Raised to date: £849.76 (£424.88 donated); shared so far: £854.59; progress to next donation: £0/£200

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Raised so far…

Update 11/08/26: £400.11 spent: 55 books sent to Cambridge. Thank you for your generosity and for helping us to support this great cause!

Update 24/01/26: £454.48 spent: 30 books sent to Cambridge, 30 books sent to Salford. Thank you for your generosity and for helping us to support this great cause!

Update 31/10/25: We’re delighted to have reached our first fundraising milestone to send books to Bookbanks! We’re liaising with them to send a hamperful of books in the New Year, when their next sites are open. Thank you for enabling us to help fill their new bookshelves!

About Bookbanks →

Bookbanks brings books to food banks. They work closely with food banks, using books and trained book professionals to create spaces for conversation, inspiration, literacy and community.

Why Bookbanks?

  • Over 4% of individuals and 8% of children of people in the UK  (2.8 million) use food banks.
  • 1 in 8 UK children does not own a single book.
  • Being read to at the age of 5 is a significant protective factor against poverty at 30.

How Bookbanks works
Bookbanks partners with food banks to create enticing pop-up stalls of free books onsite.

From baby books to poetry, via cookbooks and classics, some are donated by bookshops, prizes and publishers. Others are given by individuals, including food bank guests. New, or in good condition, all are books that our guests can enjoy browsing and be proud to own.

Stalls are open every week, looked after by trained volunteers with a background in books. Bookbanks volunteers include librarians, authors, publishers and more; they all have a passion for books and widening access to them.

Bookbanks also hosts regular on-site events, such as author readings and writing workshops, further helping to transform food banks into spaces for conversation, inspiration, literacy and community.


Support Bookbanks by buying a gift card → or the Renard Press: Five Years anthology →

RENARD PRESS: FIVE YEARS: AN ANTHOLOGY
In 2025 Renard turns five years old, and this volume celebrates the first half-decade of its operation. A Renard Press Edition, this anthology is a special numbered limited-edition of the Publisher’s selection of some of the finest work we’ve had the pleasure of publishing.

Framed with classic examples of each genre, the book collects some fifty books inside one jacket, pulling together a broad church of writers. Reading is, after all, one of the best ways to explore, to meet people and places we might otherwise not; so, like any diet, it should be varied.

How better to crown five years of pushing boundaries, daring to be different, than producing such a memento – elegant and handsome, but also broad in content and creativity, inspiring and thought provoking.

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