ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) — A recent book donation event at Rock Springs Elementary School in Escondido put free books directly into the hands of dozens of families, most recently with a special focus on providing Spanish-language reading materials for children.
The Reyes family was among those who attended a lunch-and-learn event for parents, where each family could select five free books to take home. The donation was made possible through the "Education Begins at Home" non-profit, founded by Edward Becerra.
The Spanish books came from a larger donation of 70,000 books provided by Fondo de Cultura Económica, a Spanish-language publishing group based in Mexico, to the San Diego Council on Literacy. Becerra received 4,000 books from that distribution.
"You can go to any school in Southern California and at least 50% of the students are Latino," Becerra said.
For bilingual families like the Reyes family, having access to Spanish-language books is essential for maintaining their cultural heritage and language skills.
"Adding new books to the collection is always fun," said Laila Reyes, a parent at the event.
Reyes explained that reading in Spanish helps ensure her children retain the language that connects them to their extended family.
"A lot of our family speaks Spanish, and so it's definitely something we want to pass down to our kids," Reyes said.
The lunch-and-learn event resulted in families taking home approximately 125 books, though Becerra brought about 500 books to ensure there were plenty of options available.
Since founding "Education Begins at Home" in 2015, Becerra has distributed over 300,000 books at more than 1,000 events throughout the region. His mission focuses on improving literacy regardless of language.
"My whole purpose is to help improve the reading levels of our youth," Becerra said.
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