Mississauga, Ont.-Move over, snacks and sodas, there's a new vending machine in town! And it's serving up Indigenous specials for First Nations kids and others!

Some schools and children's activity centers across Canada have been experimenting with a new vending machine that distributes food for the brain-books.

Start2Finish Indigenous Collaborations is behind many of the orange machines proclaiming "Every Child Matters" that you're seeing pop up in various areas across the nation. This is part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action to provide culturally relevant programming and materials for school-aged Indigenous students.

"To support improving education attainment levels and success rates, we have launched The Indigenous Literacy Enhancement ("LIT") Project in partnership with friendship centres and Indigenous-serving schools," the organization's website announced.

The book vending machines are filled with books written by Indigenous authors and focused for First Nations students to incorporate "culturally-relevant storytelling that allows Indigenous children to see themselves in the stories/books and create a path forward for themselves and their communities," according to the organization's website.

"The Indigenous Literacy Enhancement Project was created to support literacy and student achievement in Indigenous communities through the power of storytelling," shares Brian Warren, Founder and Executive Director, Start2Finish. "Our aim is to help children build their learning pathway by providing culturally-relevant books to encourage emotional, mental and spiritual growth."

The LIT Project piloted eight inaugural book vending machines in 2022-2023, which were provided to Indigenous friendship/cultural centres and schools on Anishinabe Algonquin, Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, Attawandaron, Blackfoot Confederacy, Tsuut'ina, Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and Métis Nation lands, with the goal to quadruple the outreach in the following three years. The organization's goal is to keep the vending machines filled with enough Indigenous-authored books for each of the 200 to 250 children per location to receive a free book every month.

"Providing opportunities for reading is critical to improving literacy among students," says Andrea Holowka, Superintendent, School Improvement for the Calgary Board of Education. "When a child has a book they can take home and keep, it increases readership and boosts reading levels, leading to greater academic and social success. The Start2Finish Indigenous Literacy Enhancement Project creates opportunities for students and school communities to engage in practices that facilitate reconciliation."

The vending machines themselves were the concept of the Global Vending Group, are dubbed Inchy's Book Vending Machine, and can be ordered with different designs to fit the vendor needs, including the Indigenous, orange Every Child Matters focus. Each machine holds 200-300 of up to 20 different books of various sizes. Instead of money, the students use tokens for the machines.

The vending machines cost several thousand dollars and many organizations find funding for them through grants, or through an organization like the LIT project.

The vending machine at the Bernice Sayese Centre in Prince Albert, is operated by the Prince Albert Indian and Métis Friendship Centre. The books in that machine are designed for readers from ages five to eighteen and include picture books, chapter books and books written in Cree. The center hopes to serve 2000 children within the next couple of years.

In some schools, children receive book-vending tokens for good attendance or when they're caught in a good deed, like being kind to another child.

"Kids love tokens and getting things," Warren said. "Something popping out-what we're saying is, 'Literacy is going to be the same thing.' They're going to look and read them in culturally relevant terms. Warren told CBA news that he hopes the vending machines help connect the kids with their own culture in ways their parents never had, and that by inserting tokens into the machine, they understand a symbolic gesture of investing in their own culture to gain knowledge.

Start2Finish

"Colonialism is someone else telling the story," said Warren. "But what they're going to see is someone who is First Nation telling the story."