For 30 years, Books For Africa gets Minnesota books to the neediest in the world

It was 30 years ago that Minnesota-based world traveler Tom Warth, shocked by what he called a book famine in Africa, shipped several mailbags of used books out of a church basement to libraries and schools there.

That modest gesture grew into St. Paul-based Books For Africa, one of the state’s best-known international charities that has become the world’s largest supplier of donated books to Africa.