For many people, lunchtime during a busy workday is hardly a celebratory affair.

Whether it is eating a bowl of microwaved leftovers while checking email messages at one’s desk or eating a greasy cheeseburger inside one’s car while parked at a fast-food restaurant, lunchtime is just a perfunctory, joyless pitstop in the middle of the day.

Instead of spending that 30 minutes simply chowing down in silence, local volunteer coordinator Wendy Mangelsdorf proposes a different way for people to spend their noontime break — by spending that time serving as a lunch buddy for a local student.

The lunch buddy program, organized by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berrien & Cass, allows volunteers at least once a week to visit a local school and enjoy a lunch with a student, serving as a mentor, advisor and companion for that particular child.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s very significant, but I assure you it is,” Mangelsdorf said.

The case manager discussed the work she and other members of the organization due to improve the lives of local children during Thursday’s meeting of the Dowagiac Rotary Club. Mangelsdorf talked about the lunch buddy and other programs the nonprofit does to match up volunteers with struggling children throughout the dual county area.

The local Big Brothers Big Sisters branch has served Berrien and Cass counties from its central office in Niles for nearly 50 years, Mangelsdorf said. While supporting many children who come from broken households, some cases Mangelsdorf handles are children who still have two parents, though, due to medical or other issues, one of the parents can’t always be there to do fun things with their child, she said.

“It takes a village,” Mangelsdorf said. “Our kids are faced with things that are way beyond my thinking sometimes, of the constant pressure of getting to school, feeling accomplished, feeling success, knowing where their next meal will come from, whether the heat will be on in their house this winter. Those are just some of the challenges our kids face.”

Making up the backbone of the organization’s support system for these children are the men and women who volunteer to serve as mentors. People can sign up to be mentors from the age of 15, with no restriction on their age past that point — at the moment, the oldest mentor serving with the Niles office is 86 years old, Mangelsdorf said.

Mangelsdorf, the senior case manager with Big Brothers Big Sisters, started off with the organization as a lunch buddy herself, and continues to serve as one to this day, playing games, hanging out on the playground, and just talking to her Little Sister during their once-a-week meeting, she said.

“I look forward to that time just as much as she does,” she said.

Right now, the organization is looking for 35 mentors to match with kids across both counties, Mangelsdorf said.

People interested in volunteering can contact Big Brothers Big Sisters at 1-877-367-2244.