Lunch Buddies
In 2015, HOSC instituted Lunch Buddies at Jane Addams Elementary School in Palatine to provide volunteer-based homework assistance to low-income students. The responsive program has since evolved and benefitted schools in Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, and Elk Grove Village. Lunch Buddies now bolsters the numeracy and reading skills of students at Jane Addams and promotes a love of reading at Rupley Elementary School. The program fosters positive associations with books while increasing the self-confidence of students and tutors alike. Lunch Buddies not only benefits early readers but also provides career pathway experiences for underserved high school students who frequently volunteer as tutors.
We currently need lunchtime volunteers to tutor at Jane Addams Elementary School in Palatine and Rupley Elementary School in Elk Grove Village. Apply below to serve as a lunch buddy starting in October 2022.
Impact
Every dollar raised delivers measurable results that support our aims of strengthening foundational math and reading skills and cultivating positive attitudes toward learning.
- 100% of the Lunch Buddies students in 6th grade achieved satisfactory grades and school attendance. (Spring 2019)
- Every 4th and 5th grade teacher reported seeing improvements in student engagement and assignment completion rates among their Lunch Buddies students. (Spring 2019)
- 94% of 1st and 2nd graders in the program indicated they enjoyed free reading time, a 25 percentage-point increase from the beginning of the term. (Spring 2019)
"Not only did you build up their reading skills, but you also helped them grow into such wonderful little people and they always talked about how much they loved eating and chatting with you guys!" - Plainfield Elementary School Teacher
