Recipes, Stories, and a Growing Wait List: McKinley Park's Aquinas Literacy Center Trains Six New Volunteer Tutors
By Socialhood News · Il/Chicago/Mckinley Park ·
A beloved English-learning program at McKinley Park's Aquinas Literacy Center is expanding — and the neighborhood demand for it is outpacing even its best efforts to keep up.
The Aquinas Literacy Center, located at 1751 W. 35th St. in the heart of McKinley Park's commercial corridor, has trained six new volunteer tutors to support its one-on-one English language instruction sessions. The milestone is a direct response to growing community need: even with the new cohort of volunteers now ready to work with learners, the program still carries a wait list of residents eager to enroll. The center is actively seeking more neighbors willing to give their time as tutors.
The tutor expansion is closely tied to one of the center's most distinctive offerings: a program called "Food, Stories & Home," which teaches English through the sharing of immigrant family recipes. Published in June 2026, the program's approach is as warm as it is practical — participants learn the language while cooking and sharing the dishes that define their cultural identities, turning the act of literacy instruction into an act of community. The Aquinas Literacy Center hosts the program as part of a broader resiliency initiative rooted in the conviction that language access and cultural pride go hand in hand.
For a neighborhood as richly diverse as McKinley Park — home to large Mexican, Chinese-American, and immigrant communities from across Latin America — programs like this one aren't just helpful. They're essential infrastructure. The Southwest Side has long been a port of entry for new Chicagoans, and the Aquinas Literacy Center has quietly served as one of its most important welcoming institutions, offering free, community-rooted education to adults navigating a new language and a new city.
The six newly trained tutors represent real momentum. One-on-one tutoring is the core of the Aquinas model — a patient, human-scale approach that mass-enrollment classes can't replicate. Each tutor works directly with a single learner, building the kind of consistent, trusting relationship that accelerates language acquisition and builds confidence. Training volunteers is no small lift, and the center's ability to bring six new tutors through that pipeline at once signals an organization firing on all cylinders.
But the wait list is a reminder that the work is far from done. McKinley Park neighbors who have English fluency and a few hours to spare each week are encouraged to explore volunteering as a tutor. No teaching credential is required — just a willingness to show up consistently and support a neighbor in building a skill that changes lives. Interested volunteers can connect with the Aquinas Literacy Center directly at 1751 W. 35th St., just steps from the Orange Line and well within reach for most McKinley Park residents.
As the neighborhood continues its broader transformation — new housing on 34th Place, a Complete Streets redesign on 35th Street, the Quartermaster Depot rehab on Pershing — it's easy to focus on the physical changes reshaping the blocks. But the Aquinas Literacy Center is a reminder that McKinley Park's most important assets are its people, and that investing in neighbors' ability to communicate, advocate, and participate fully in civic life is as foundational as any streetscape project. A neighborhood where every resident can read a lease, help a child with homework, or speak up at an 11th Ward meeting is a stronger neighborhood for everyone.
If you want to support the Aquinas Literacy Center — whether as a volunteer tutor, a donor, or simply by spreading the word — visit the center at 1751 W. 35th St. or follow updates at mckinleypark.news.
Sources:
1. https://mckinleypark.news/
2. https://mckinleypark.news/news