Book Drive for Street Books! (Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week 2026)

Love reading? Got some extra paperbacks to spare? Donate them to Street Books as part of Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week!

Partnering with Street Books, a unique bicycle-powered library serving Portland’s unhoused community, the Student Community Engagement Center is hosting a book drive during Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week. This initiative supports Street Books' mission of providing literary resources to those who may not have access to a traditional library.

Donations of books in good condition are welcome, especially those focused on:

1. 1. Fiction—literary, westerns, science fiction, horror (think, Stephen King or Dean Koontz) and thrillers (like James Patterson).

   2. Work by underrepresented writers—books by BIPOC and LGBT writers!

   3. Nonfiction like history, spirituality, self-help, wilderness survival, foraging, herbal guides, etc. New puzzle books and adult coloring books.

   4. Spanish language—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, children’s books.

Paperbacks are much preferred as they are lighter to carry. No textbooks, please. :)

Donation boxes can be found all week in Smith Memorial Student Union, in SMSU m103 (Hub for Service & Sustainability) and m113 (SALP Clubhouse), on the first floor mezzanine, in SMSU 4th floor Queer Resource Center lounge (439).

Partner Spotlight: Street Books

Street Books is a bicycle-powered library that provides books to people experiencing houselessness in Portland, fostering access to reading and community connection.

Street Books cultivates mutual relationships rooted in dignity and autonomy by showing up every week, year after year, in all kinds of weather, all around the city, to meet people where they are. They believe in the transformative capacity of books, both for the individual and collective. Books offer access to ideas, education, and liberation.

You can learn more about Street Books and their mission here.

Sign up if you want a reminder to drop off your books and/or more information about when and where to find us!