Carbondale, IL: Save the date and start picking out cookbooks you’re ready to let go of: Saturday October 26 will be a fall Cookbook Fundraiser from 8 to 12 at the Carbondale Farmers Market. Confluence Books organizes the event to keep cookbooks flowing through Southern Illinois kitchens. Anyone can bring cookbooks to add to the tables; and everyone can pick out cookbooks to bring home and try, all for the price of a free-will donation to the Good Sam Food Pantry.

Confluence Books started the practice in 2022 to find an outlet for excess cookbooks, and in response to community members who had carloads of cookbooks to pass on to others. Tables will be set up along with pitchers for donations, with all proceeds going directly to the Food Pantry.

Confluence Books’ Sarah Heyer said, “Please don’t think you need to bring a cookbook to participate. We already have several hundred books, and more will appear.” She added “This is not the usual Buck-a-Book. You can decide what it’s worth to you and what you want to pay.”

Any books that remain at the end of the fundraiser will be cleared out by Confluence Books, to be recycled, given away, sold at later Farmers Markets, or placed on shelves at the bookstore.

For more information about Confluence Books or the Cookbook Fundraiser and how to help, contact confluencebooks@gmail.com or 618-525-3075. Confluence Books tables at the Farmers Market most Saturdays, barring rain, selling a wide variety of books for $1.