Recipes Tell Stories
Conversation Sparks Connection
Cookbooks provide an accessible means for kids to consume nonfiction and the recipes within serve as a way to form connections and broaden cultural awareness. Ensuring these books are accessible to readers at school means nurturing an environment ripe for inclusive learning.
Our Mission
PRESERVING CLASSROOM LIBRARIES to NOURISH Young Minds
One Bookshelf is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization on a mission to stock classroom libraries with eclectic cookbooks, believing that food fosters meaningful connection. Whether a specific ingredient or a whole recipe, food is a powerful spark of memory and conversation.
By identifying with a recipe and expressing their own experiences of cooking or eating, students will feel they have a seat at the table – represented, accepted, and connected to their peers – leading to increased engagement and deeper learning in the classroom setting.
“Through food, we can find that there is more that connects us than separates us. What we eat and what we discover brings us together...it’s how we know who we are and how we know we’re connected.”
DR. JESSICA HARRIS
MISSION
The Basis for Making an Impact Together
LYNNE WATANABE KGANETSO
“Creating and Using Culturally Sustaining Informational Texts.” The Reading Teacher 70 (2017): 445-455.
"There is oftentimes a lack of culturally representative informational texts in schools due to availability, quality, and relevance in children’s lives. “Stocking a classroom library with cookbooks as procedural text helps students connect literacy in the home, community, and school.”
"The use of culturally relevant texts can support students' reading development, foster a love of reading, help students form positive identities, and broaden their social consciousness. Well-matched culturally relevant texts have particular promise in increasingly diverse classrooms."
KRISTIN KIBLER AND LINDSEY A. CHAPMAN
“Six Tips for Using Culturally Relevant Texts in Diverse Classrooms.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 72, no. 6, 2018, pp. 741–744., https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1775.
"Classroom libraries are a literacy necessity…they are integral to successful teaching and learning and must become a top priority if our students are to become thriving, engaged readers."
RegiE ROUTMAN
Reading Essentials: The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well, Heinemann, Portsmouth, 2003.
Get Involved
Become a Partner
Dreaming of co-hosting an event, sharing a family recipe, donating copies of your own cookbook, or making a massive impact in some other way? Whether you’re an educator, author or even a celebrity chef, whatever your bright idea for a collaboration, we’re chomping at the bit to hear it. One Bookshelf thrives off of outside support in our mission, so we welcome any and all conversations around partnerships.
PARTNER
Dr. Karen O’Leary is an educator, author, entrepreneur, and mother of three. She holds a doctorate and two Masters degrees in Education, professional licensure in Special Education, and is a certified Reading Specialist in the State of Massachusetts. Karen spent 17 years as a special educator, passionate about working in culturally diverse neighborhoods, where she experienced firsthand the incredible need and power of school-provided resources.
Where Karen saw a particular lack was in students’ literary diets, proving especially difficult to match children with appropriate books for their developmental levels. Then, whilst deep in research for her doctorate, Karen weaved together findings on race, ethnicity, and language that brought to light the idea for One Bookshelf. Based on the acronym FAIR (Funding, Accessibility, Identity, and Representation), Karen founded the charity organization to ensure young minds are nourished with culinary nonfiction, as a gateway for both personal and educational growth.
MEET OUR FOUNDER
Dr. Karen O'Leary
KEEP THE COOKIN' GOIN' WITH US ON THE 'GRAM
@ONEBOOKSHELFORG
SHOP ON AMAZON?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
Did you know that every time you shop on Amazon, you could directly impact One Bookshelf? With every purchase, a small donation (0.5%) of your overall purchase is made to our cause to put cookbooks into the hands of many children. Just simply click and use the link below and you're on the path to making an impact.