But SMARTplainfield's LunchBoox program feeds students' imagination.

Under the auspices of SMARTplainfield, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing public education and encouraging civic engagement in the city, LunchBoox puts physical books in the hands of children.

The program was the brainchild of SMARTplainfield Executive Director Katherine Balch.

"My interest in improving public education formalized with the SMARTplainfield group," Balch said. "And then I came up with this idea to give away books to kids. I realized most Plainfield students had no access to a new physical book. Many families in our district also had no internet access, so free sources of entertainment, information, and comfort were hard to come by."

Balch, who had moved to Plainfield from Fanwood nine years ago, reached out to her friend Carol Campbell, president of the Friends of the Fanwood Library, and asked if people who donate children's books to the Friends Book Sale would be willing to donate them to Plainfield kids.