Oklahoma Christian’s (OC) Literacy Lunch program is a unique effort to meet the needs of adult ESL workers and their employers. Volunteer teachers focus on improving conversational skills, but classes are also tailored to meet the needs of the employees at work. Depending on the needs of the employees and the availability of volunteers, classes usually meet once or twice a week. For maximum effectiveness, classes are limited to 10 students. The OC Literacy Lunch program strives to be flexible in design while maintaining quality in teaching.
The program began in 2006 as a unique effort to meet the needs of adult immigrant workers and their employers. Starting on OC’s campus, Literacy Lunch volunteer teachers met with maintenance staff during their lunch breaks and offered conversational English instruction. The program soon expanded to area hotels. After the economic downturn in 2008, most classes moved from lunchtime work sites to evening classes at churches, libraries, and OC.
Despite its name, Literacy Lunches offers evening classes once a week at the Britton Road church of Christ, Capitol Hill church of Christ, Memorial Road church of Christ, and South Walker church of Christ.
Over the years, Literacy Lunches has received grant funding from community partners such as Oklahoma City Community Foundation, the Bowers Foundation, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, the Oklahoma Literacy Coalition and Tinker Federal Credit Union.
Grant funding covers materials and training for the volunteer teachers and subsidizes textbook costs for the students.
The program is coordinated by Dr. Gail Nash, Associate Professor of Language and Literature and advisor for the BA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).