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Marlow students boost Manna House
Manna House
A select group of Marlow Elementary School students join media specialist Kim Owens, media clerk Fran Morrison and Manna House Executive Director Lisa Bush for Thursday’s donation of nearly 600 books. - photo by Mark Lastinger/staff

GUYTON — Manna House Ministries intends to nourish bodies and minds during the Christmas season.

Free books are currently being included with bags of food given to Manna House clients with young children. The gifts are made possible by the generosity of Marlow Elementary School students, who donated nearly 600 books to the cause.

The project was the brainchild Kim Owens, Marlow’s media specialist. 

“Our goal was to teach the children to give back,” Owens said Thursday while presenting the books to Manna House Executive Director Lisa Bush. “We’ve done this before but we didn’t do it last year.”

The books for Manna House, which serves 700-800 families per month, were collected during a festival conducted at the school Nov. 18-22. The theme was “Treat Yourself to a Good Book.”

Fifth-grader Morgan Stringer enjoyed the chance to brighten Christmas for needy students. She dropped off about 20 books at the collection site in front of the media center.

“My mom buys books for me and I’ve read most of them,” she said. 

Stringer likes biographies. She is particularly fond of the “Who Was ...?” series.

“This is just one little hope of encouragement for families that may struggle to buy books or other things for their kids,” Bush said.