To further its efforts to help patients live their best and healthiest lives, NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and North Central Bronx (NCB) announced on Oct. 11 that it would be opening a library mailbox on its NCB campus, in conjunction with local mutual aid group, the Norwood Community Library.

 

The library, established in 2018, as reported, attempts to fill the literacy void that exists in many Bronx neighborhoods which are left without bookstores or ways to easily access reading material. The library was started by Brandon Montes, 32, a lifelong Bronxite who identified gaps in available literature across the borough when Barnes & Noble shut its doors in 2016.

 

As reported, the project, which initially started outside a local bodega, has developed into a library mailbox located at 3400 Reservoir Oval East and a robust tabling operation led by Montes and his volunteers. NCB is the second permanent physical mailbox location.

 

NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and NCB CEO Christopher Mastromano said of the new hospital initiative, “We are excited to launch this partnership with the Norwood Community Library. A good book can be comforting to a patient while they are visiting our hospitals or outpatient facilities, it is our hope this library mailbox will serve not only our patients but the surrounding community.”

 

Meanwhile, State Senator Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), who also attended the launch, said, “Our future is in the hands of our youth and now books will be too thanks to North Central Bronx Hospital, the Norwood Community Library and its founder Brandon Montes. It was such an honor to celebrate this new community library that encourages Bronxites to grab a book and read.”

Montes already has a strong history with NCB. He was born at the facility in 1991 and his mother, Bella Bernundez, worked as a clerical worker in the clinics department in the 1990s.

 

“A good book has the power to stay with you for a lifetime. I wanted to help my whole neighborhood experience that feeling. All are welcome to take a book or leave a book thanks to this collaboration between the Norwood Community Library and North Central Bronx!” he said.

 

Those looking to access the new Norwood Community Library Branch can find it at NCB on the first floor of the hospital, in the lobby near the entrance.