Every Wednesday, around two o’clock in the afternoon, the warmth of popcorn kernels popping and melting butter dousing them radiates from the Gainesville Housing Authority (GHA) offices as hungry resident children teem for snack time after school.  

Leftover newspapers—Mainstreet Daily News print editions—cover the tables where they gather, catching any white cheddar cheese popcorn seasoning flakes and juice spills as the kids rehash the paper delivery routes they just raced to finish. 

The feast is a weekly tradition for the Junior Newspaper Deliverers, who, along with a few adult volunteers, have run hundreds of copies of Mainstreet papers to doorsteps throughout GHA neighborhoods since the news outlet started dropping off bundles there in June. 

MDN launched in 2020 as a free source of daily online local news. It has since added a weekly print edition, which expanded circulation in 2024 and remains free due to support from members and advertisers. 

Ardry Henderson, GHA’s resident services specialist, oversees the junior newspaper delivery program and said every newspaper delivered through it—along with GHA’s Strive 4 Success grant—is helping break cycles of poverty. She said children of families living in affordable housing often grow up to also live in affordable housing, and greater access to jobs and education often breaks the cycle.  

Henderson said the roughly 3,400 children and adults living in the subsidized housing are educated and informed through Mainstreet stories. She said the kids also gain connection and a sense of purpose and responsibility while delivering them to their neighbors. 

“I get goose bumps every time they run out [to deliver],” Henderson said. “For some people, it’s just kids delivering the newspaper. But for me, it’s bigger than that. We’re opening up some minds and opportunities that these kids probably never thought were even possible two, three months ago.”  

The first bundle of Mainstreet papers came to GHA after Henderson met Janalyn Peppel, Mainstreet’s community partnerships manager, in March at a ribbon-cutting for GHA’s new Elite Training Center.  

The center provides resources to families living in GHA’s Section 8 affordable housing, helping them navigate careers and achieve home ownership through partnerships with Santa Fe College and the University of Florida. 

After hearing about Mainstreet’s mission to provide free local news to everyone in the community, Henderson emailed Peppel the next day, looking for information on how GHA could start getting papers. 

Peppel said the decision to start delivering to GHA wasn’t just about expanding circulation, which had already reached 20,000 copies to make Mainstreet the most-widely circulated newspaper in North Central Florida. Instead, the partnership was about growing connections.  

Peppel said Henderson has been the driving force for making sure local news reaches residents in east Gainesville neighborhoods, which goes hand-in-hand with Mainstreet’s mission. 

“We saw an opportunity to strengthen the bond between our newsroom and the community by providing direct access to reliable information right where people live,” Peppel said. 

Henderson said she and a few other adult volunteers were the first ones to deliver the papers to GHA neighborhoods. The deliveries started in the Pine Meadows neighborhood before rotating between others, such as Eastwood Meadows and the elderly populations in Sunshine Park and Oak Park.  

Henderson said as soon as the GHA kids noticed the new Mainstreet papers in the offices when they stopped by for snacks, computer access and homework questions, they offered to help deliver them. 

“One said, ‘I can do that, I can take those newspapers around.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, let’s talk with mommy first and make sure that it’s okay for you to go to your neighbor’s home,’” she said. “Now they come in and they fill up their little backpacks with the newspapers, and they go to their neighbors, and they put [the papers] in the screen door.” 

Since those first volunteers a few months ago, Henderson said GHA’s Junior Newspaper Delivery program has grown to around a dozen deliverers, ranging from 5 to 12 years old. Many of them are siblings and also have family members who work or volunteer in other GHA positions.  

She said the newspaper has served as a valuable literacy resource for the junior deliverers, as GHA staff often quiz the kids on different words in the stories.  

Alachua County needs all the literacy resources it can get, as the school district has for years battled low literacy rates and a large learning disparity. A study from the Florida Literacy Coalition found that around 18.6% of adults in Alachua County are functionally illiterate. Around half of Alachua County’s K-12 students are reading on grade level, but only one in three African American students in the county can do so.  

Henderson also said delivering papers has helped GHA kids become more confident overall. 

“One of the sister and brother groups were really super shy when they first started coming in,” Henderson said. “But now we’ve kind of seen them come out of their shells more because they’re so excited about going and knocking on doors and putting the newspaper in.” 

Henderson said the newspaper has also served as a valuable resource of free entertainment for the elderly and disabled GHA communities who can’t easily access information elsewhere.  

That access to information has widespread community benefits: According to research from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Illinois at Chicago, cities with a strong local newspaper have less corruption and lower municipal borrowing costs than those that do not. 

Henderson said neighbors who might otherwise have stayed inside, fearing crime, are now meeting each other as they connect over the paper. 

“We always say Mainstreet is helping build a stronger community, and I can’t think of a better example than this program,” publisher J.C. Derrick said. “It’s a trifecta: Help kids learn responsibility, promote literacy, and keep community members informed with trusted local news. We are glad to be a part of it and grateful to those who partnered with us to make it happen.” 

On Aug.16, GHA held its annual Celebration of Success awards ceremony, celebrating the accomplishments of GHA families throughout the year.  

Along with honoring residents who obtained home ownership and received master’s degrees, GHA recognized Junior Newspaper Deliverers Dicarian and De’cota Boyd, Gilberto, Giovani and Gael Orellana, Aleiyah and Kaden Murray, Kyle and Kaylie West, Amayah Davis and Ja’layssia Cobble for their services. 

Mainstreet also recently launched a related initiative called Newspapers in Education (NIE), which aims to put local news into the hands of students.  

By providing newspapers to classrooms, the news outlet intends to help teachers incorporate current events into their lessons, encourage literacy and spark curiosity about the local community to ensure future generations grow up informed and engaged. 

Anyone can get involved with NIE through sponsorships or donations that directly fund the distribution of papers to schools. Teachers who would like to get newspapers in classrooms can contact Mainstreet to request them.  

With GHA serving as a trial run for Junior Newspaper Delivery, Peppel said the program’s early success is just the beginning as Mainstreet will look to expand to other areas of Gainesville in the future. 

“To see young people gaining a sense of pride, responsibility, and even literacy practice through delivering the paper is inspiring,” Peppel said. “Knowing that the newspaper is fostering both empowerment and engagement—across generations—reminds us why local journalism matters so much.”