Monty and Kamiyah (Photo by Christina Sturdivant)

“If somebody was standing right here and they saw the vending machine, they would say ‘oh yes, candy!’” said 8-year-old Monty, just a few feet away from a machine inside of Matthews Memorial Baptist Church in Southeast. But not this machine, Monty continues, “because it has books inside of it.”

It turns out though, that books are a sweeter treat than candy for some kids. Kamiyah McDowney, who’ll be a fifth grader this fall, anxiously walked up to the vending machine with her mom. “I have all of the books here, except for three,” she says. Her favorite one is Monster Bugs by Lucille Recht Penner, which tells a story about a water bug that kills other insects.

For the second year in a row, the custom-designed vending machine offers free books in Anacostia as part of JetBlue’s Soar with Reading initiative. In last year’s pilot program, the machines were at three locations in the neighborhood. This year, the church is the only venue with the offering in the District—likely because of its hours of operation (everyday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.) and the church members’ dedication to ensuring that the resource is stocked with different books every two weeks, says the church’s first lady, Shelley Hudson.

Parents like the vending machine because it lets children get the books themselves, Hudson says. All they have to do is answer a few questions on a touchscreen that narrows down reading options by age, up to 14 years old. Parents also like that children can keep the books. “This way, they get to start their own home libraries,” Hudson says.

McDowney’s mother, Tiffany, says this is the first year her family is taking advantage of the machine. While her daughter sometimes gets free books from school, she mostly has to purchase them. “It’s good for her, it keeps her quiet” during the summer, she says.

The books also help prevent summer learning loss, which is one of the reasons JetBlue decided to put the machine in Anacostia, which is considered “a book desert.” According to research commissioned by JetBlue, there’s only one book for every 830 children in the neighborhood.

Last year’s pilot program distributed more than 27,000 books through the machines. Since launching July 1, the new program has dispensed 1,000 books, according to JetBlue spokesperson Kelsey Labrot.

When the program’s staff conducted a survey last year, they found that parents wanted to see more workbooks in the machine, “which really shows how much parents care about their kids being ready for school,” according to Labrot. This year, another one of McDowney’s favorite books has puzzles and games featuring animals, she says.

A skeptical Monty, who walked away with three books, has already started reading Baseball’s Best: Five True Stories by Andrew Gutelle. “I like it because it’s about a lot of baseball players who made a difference in [the game],” he says, admitting that the machine is, in fact, good for kids.

The vending machine, located at 2616 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, is available through August.