Posted on June 30, 2020
This week, we invited special contributors to the Karsh Center blog: Scott Gamzon, Rick Draughon and their son Noah Gamzon-Draughon have been volunteering at the Karsh Center Sunday Food Pantry (initially just the Wilshire Blvd Temple Food Pantry) for the past seven years. Now a volunteer leader or “Coordinator,”Noah started at the age of 8, initially hanging back but over time became the chief greeter and expeditor of the clients, greeting with a smile and conversation and guiding them to the correct line to receive their groceries. Despite changes in how the food pantry has operated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this past Father’s Day, Noah and Scott spent Sunday morning volunteering as always.
Noah Gamzon-Draughon: I’ve been volunteering at the food pantry for a while now. Before COVID-19, I would put together bags and then when the clients came though I would point them where to go to get their food. Over the seven years I’ve been volunteering, I’ve gotten to know many of our regular clients. I get nervous when they don’t show up.
Scott Gamzon: Rick and I used to run the “Bagel Café” for the Religious School at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. While we were setting up, we would send Noah to volunteer with the food pantry (then being run out of the courtyard of Temple). After 2 years of “Bagel Café, we switched our efforts to joining Noah at the Food Pantry. Now Rick usually volunteers on Fridays packing over 400 bags, while Noah and I volunteer on Sundays handing out bags and produce to the clients.
Noah: Before COVID-19, some of the clients would shake my hand, put their arms around me and even give me Korean candies. Now I am behind a plexiglass screen and we are all wearing masks, so it’s a little harder to interact. I still see some of the regulars and it makes me happy to see that they are healthy. While we can’t touch it’s still nice to have a brief conversation and say hello.
Scott: I’m usually working in the back helping to bring out any extra protein, produce and now we have frozen soup provided by a local restaurant group. Since COVID-19 there are far fewer volunteers allowed inside – there are only four of us, so I am much more busy. I would usually converse with some of the clients – and, in fact, found out that one client had been in the class above me at my college. There are several other clients whom I know by face and name, but right now we are doing so much more work that I don’t really have time to see or talk to them.
Noah: We had activity books and cards that went into the bags for Father’s Day. Usually when I see a family with small children, we have books and toys that I give to them. My friend’s grandmother even sews handmade bears that I love handing out when we have them.
Scott: I was grateful to celebrate Father’s Day at the Karsh Center Food Pantry. I am very proud of how Noah interacts with the clients with respect and compassion.
A Father’s Day gift from the Karsh Center, picture taken by Scott Gamzon