Got overdue books? Pay fines with food

York County Library branches helping hungry

By Andrew Dys - adys@heraldonline.com

FORT MILL -- The York County Library is one of the best bargains to be found. Borrow books, take them back on time, and don't pay a cent. Except if you are late.

Then, fines kick in, a few cents a day for each item. This is well known among husbands and fathers who were late for weddings and are the poster boys for the part of the ceremony that states “for richer or poorer.”

But at the end of the year, slackers can save their money and pay the library late bill with food. Any can or box of non-perishable food or toiletries counts for a buck toward the tab. The program, dubbed “Food for Fines” and now in its third holiday season, started Saturday and runs through Dec. 31. All five county library branches had substantial donations come in over the weekend after the drive started.

“One guy came in here over the weekend and paid $37 worth of fines with food,” said Connie Wade, one of the staffers at the library in Rock Hill. “One dollar per item toward the fine. People just try to help.”

The library, a nonprofit run by the county government, collects fines throughout the year, but it defers those collections during the holidays to help the hungry, said Debbie Turner, community relations manager for the library. Other libraries have successfully done similar food drives that exchange food for fines.

“This is one way the library can give back to so many people who need it,” Turner said.

The contributions stay local at regional food pantries. All the collections at branches in Clover and Lake Wylie go to the Clover Care Center. The York branch collects for PATH in York, while the Rock Hill library collects food for Hope Inc. and toiletries for Pilgrims' Inn, and Fort Mill collects for the Fort Mill Care Center.

“The library drive is incredible, fantastic,” said Jan Arnold of the Fort Mill Care Center. “The last two years, they gave more than 2,000 pounds of food each year. Literally a ton of food for the hungry.”

Patrons, in just a few days, already have gone further than paying down fines: All the libraries reported that some customers who didn't owe brought in food.

“One regular brought food this weekend, and she never is late, never has fines,” Terry Cobb of the Clover branch said. “She just said she wanted to help.”

Monday, the Rock Hill branch already had a grocery cart donated by Bi-Lo almost filled with canned vegetables, baby food, even designer chicken broth with Food Network diva Rachael Ray on the carton.

The Food for Fines program is an incentive to get expensive long-overdue books back into circulation, said Turner, and it ends up paying for itself while collecting food. Late books only are eligible: Those that are lost or damaged cannot be paid off with food.

In Fort Mill on Monday, a customer named Amy got her $6 fine knocked down to a clean slate with a big bag of food for strangers. Amy said she was “a little embarrassed and felt a bit like a miscreant,” that she had a library fine to begin with because it offers such good service. But she said at least she was able to help someone with the food.

Leave it to a lady at the library to use the word “miscreant” in a sentence. The only other place that word is used is in criminal court, where Judge John C. Hayes III has used “miscreant” and “incorrigible” at least twice in the same sentence. It is unclear whether those persons brought food, but both left court in shackles.

Others at the library Monday who brought food lacked Amy's grace and shame. The worst regular customer of the Fort Mill branch showed up Monday with four of his 7-year-old daughter's overdue books, overflowing grocery bags filled with food and hope that the staff would not yell out in unison as he slunk in: “Throw the bum out!”

The daughter's books had been on the back seat of his old beater of a car for a week as the guy forgot daily to return them. His own set of borrowed books were found under car seats, beneath a couch and piled like a ransacked red velvet cake on a coffee table and in a lava-like heap next to a chair. His fines had multiplied like rabbits.

“I'm beggin', please, can you help me?” begged the oaf. “The mother-in-law hid the books! I told the kids to steal the car and return the books! I had a flat tire for three weeks! I was attacked by owls at Cherry Park!”

The staffers just took the books and laughed. They took all the food and zeroed out the balance of $2.40 for the blameless 7-year-old kid and $9.80 for the goof. “Thanks,” said the dummy. “What a great program.”

I ought to know. That rock head was me.