Starbucks to Host Mother Goose

Mother Goose is about to land in Starbucks. Starting in February, a Fort Worth, TX, branch of the national coffee chain will begin hosting weekly storytimes for preschool kids and their caregivers. The yearlong program is a joint project between the Fort Worth Public Library and the Starbucks Foundation, which provided a $5,000 grant to launch the program.

Library employees experienced in the Mother Goose method of storytelling have been training personnel at Starbuck's Bryant Irvin store to integrate math and science concepts through various reading techniques. The Mother Goose program, created by the Vermont Center for the Book, emphasizes introducing classic and contemporary children's literature in ways that spark interest and discussion.

The collaboration was inspired by Amy Bearden, a regular at the Bryant Irvin Starbucks who works in the outreach office of the Fort Worth Library Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization that is an advocate for the library system. Bearden, who is also a mother, noticed that the café was always filled with parents and little children. Creating storytimes seemed like a logical way to help increase traffic at the Fort Worth libraries, the closest of which is about 10 miles away.

"People will have a different attitude about the library if we are perceived as goodwill ambassadors," says Rhonda Herd, the library's outreach director. "Our job is to take the library out the door to create literacy and storytime programs."

Starbucks trainees will receive program books, family activity guides, and science and math activity kits. Employees will also train caregivers in skills that will improve children's understanding of concepts and language through reading. Starbucks regularly distributes literacy grants nationwide.