The Food Bank also has internship opportunities. To volunteer, call Nisa Zalta at 247-9738. Literacy Volunteer Network , sponsored by the Corporation for Public Management in Springfield, trains and provides tutors to work with adult learners at literacy and skills programs in the Springfield area. The program includes lesson planning, goal setting and sensitivity training. Tutors then choose from one of the 18 sites the network works with, including the Mass Career Development Institute, the West Springfield Public Library and the Gray House in Springfield.
Tutors help their clients with basic math and reading skills.
Volunteers are asked for a commitment of about three hours a week. A new training program begins in late September. Call coordinator Gail Farrell at 737-8911. Open Pantry Community Services , which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary, offers a range of services for homeless and low-income people in the Springfield area, including free meals, an emergency food pantry, social services and a transitional shelter. Volunteers are most in need at Open Pantry's Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen, which provides several hundred free meals a day at two churches in downtown Springfield.