April 13, 2023 (Dallas) – The North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) announced today the reading of its children’s book, Hunger Bugs Me!, on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at Bookmarks in NorthPark Center at 1 p.m. The event is in partnership with NorthPark Center and the Dallas Public Library in advance of National Library Week, April 23 – 29. Bookmarks in NorthPark Center is located at 8687 N. Central Expy. Ste 1514, Dallas, on level 1 between Nordstrom and Macy’s.
Hunger Bugs Me! is a charming story about friendship and compassion written with the goal of enabling a conversation about the issue of hunger; making it easy for children to understand this complex problem. In the book, Ladybug and her friends embark on an adventure to help their friend, Butterfly, who is facing hunger. The North Texas Food Bank is working to get a copy of the book in every elementary school library within the 13 counties that it serves. The North Texas Food Bank service area is the fourth highest in the nation in the number of food-insecure children with more than 250,000 children facing hunger.
Emmy Award-winning news anchor, host and reporter, Jenny Anchondo, will read Hunger Bugs Me! to children at the event. The current host of the Emmy-Nominated Inside DFW with Jenny Anchondo, which airs weekdays at 9 a.m. on CW33, Anchondo is a passionate advocate of literacy and education. She has served as a volunteer for Reading Partners, the Reading Seed and multiple other literacy-based organizations.
Ladybug, a character from the book, will be at the event to greet children and will be available for photos. Hunger Bugs Me! will be available for purchase at the event for $30. Proceeds from each book benefit the North Texas Food Bank and provide 90 meals to North Texans facing hunger. The book can also be purchased on the North Texas Food Bank’s website at https://ntfb.org/hungerbugsme/
In addition to the book, there are Downloadable Resources that accompany the book Hunger Bugs Me! The PDF includes a conversation guide that has some quick tips to help adults talk to children about the issue of hunger.
Published in 2021, this book was produced by the North Texas Food Bank to create a conversation about the issue of hunger in the community and to further the conversation of food insecurity with children in a creative and easy-to-understand way. Written by Jeremy Gregg and illustrated by Arlene Soto, the book was made possible thanks to the generosity of the Richard and Mary Templeton Foundation.
