West Suburban Community Pantry Junior Board volunteers offer tutoring to students in need

While many students spend their summer break playing sports, going to the pool or working to save money, members of the Junior Board of West Suburban Community Pantry have spent part of their summer giving back to their neighbors in need by volunteering as tutors.

Nancy Chatterjee, support services coordinator at the Woodridge pantry, explains that the motivation for the tutoring program came from consistent requests for academic support from parents being served by the Pantry, as well as hearing from local school social workers citing statistics showing children participating in government programs for nourishment were often falling behind in their academic pursuits.

The goal of the tutoring program has been to help the students feel comfortable while helping them with their academic development.

“Financial instability can result in students frequently moving schools with interruptions in their education, as well as in some families opting for home schooling with few resources. The need for an initiative like this was evident,” Chatterjee said. “We were well supported by the teachers in the community who trained our Junior Board as well as jumping in to assist and teach lessons as required.”

Fifteen tutors were trained and provided services to students from elementary through high school every other Saturday at the Woodridge Public Library beginning in May.

The program has been so successful, Chatterjee plans to continue it in the coming academic year. Tutors also found their own rewards in participating.

Junior Board president Jack Ennis, a senior at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, said, “Most of my work at the Pantry is done on the Junior Board where I don’t always get to meet those that the pantry serves. Tutoring gives me the opportunity to meet those the pantry helps. Tutoring is an extremely rewarding experience. Seeing students progress through material shows me that our work (has) a tangible benefit to it.”

Saahil Sorakayala, a recent graduate of University of Illinois Chicago with a Bachelor of Engineering says by working with grade schoolers, he realized that learning takes time, and he can see how extra help benefits the learning process.

“I want to tutor because it is a way for me to contribute to my community,” he said. “I feel like I am doing something good, so I feel good myself.”

Chatterjee described the “spirit of learning” that has permeated the library from the very first day, when tutors worked with 27 students from kindergarten to juniors in high school. She described Maddie, a 7-year-old who is currently homeschooled with her brothers and sister and struggled with reading.

“By the end of the two-hour session, she was working her way through the ‘Bob Books’ beginning reader series. She has not looked back since,” Chatterjee reports. “That day, we could feel a collective hope for a better tomorrow for these students. We truly felt like the change starts here.”

The West Suburban Community Pantry offers food for the hungry and resources to empower people to improve their quality of life. Serving over 6,000 individuals each month, it is integral to helping low-income neighbors in DuPage and Will counties receive the nutrition they need to lead full lives. It is working to break down barriers to food assistance, implementing innovative new services to best help people in our community, and ultimately realize the vision of a community without hunger.

In addition to the on-site Pantry Store in Woodridge, it offers a virtual food pantry facilitating online orders and has multiple remote delivery sites across the region.

The pantry works with many area schools and instituted the region’s first in-school pantry to serve families in an elementary school where 80% of children are eligible for free or reduce fee lunch. It also provides home delivery for homebound seniors. The pantry collaborates with a number of area agencies and offers a wide range of free programs and support services designed to improve families’ quality of life.