Minneapolis-based Target Corporation has announced the launch of the 2012 Target School Library Makeover program.

Launched as part of a $1 billion, multiyear commitment to education, the 2012 program is expected to benefit a hundred and fifty schools and seventy-five thousand students. Components of the program include the renovation of libraries at thirty-two elementary schools in partnership with the Heart of America Foundation, with each library receiving two thousand new books, furniture, carpet and shelves, and a technology upgrade. Students at participating schools will get to keep seven books, and the schools will have the option to participate in the Target Meals for Minds food pantry program, which includes, through a partnership with Feeding America, monthly distributions of fresh produce and staple foods for students and their families.

Target also will award "reading grants" totaling $1.5 million to more than one hundred of the program's previous library makeover recipients. The remaining eighteen schools will benefit from a literacy pilot the company is launching in the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., school districts.

"At Target, we understand that a quality education can empower and prepare children to become the leaders of tomorrow," said Laysha Ward, the company's president of community relations. "Through the Target School Library Makeover program and collaboration with partners, educators, parents and caring adults, Target hopes to pave a path to graduation for more U.S. children."