Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Asher Cohen

Posted on August 15, 2021

In this week’s spotlight, we are proud to introduce you to volunteer, Asher Cohen. Asher and his mom, Amy, began volunteering together at the Karsh Center in 2018, and have found their volunteer “home” as two of our coordinators at the Sunday Food Pantry over the last three years. As Asher gets ready to head off to college, we were happy to get some of his reflections about his time as a volunteer at the Karsh Center. Please read on to get to know Asher, and learn about his experiences. 

Karsh Center: Tell us about yourself: where are you from? What do you do outside of volunteering? What are your hobbies?

Asher Cohen: Well, my name is Asher Cohen. I’m from Santa Monica, born and raised, but I’ll be heading off to UC Berkeley in the fall to begin my college studies. Outside of volunteering, I’m a big musical theater nerd. “Hamilton,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” and “Les Misérables” are some of my favorites, not to mention the beautiful movie adaptation of “In the Heights” that came out last June.

KC: How long have you been volunteering? In what ways have you volunteered? 

AC: I’ve been volunteering at the Karsh Center since August 2018, so about three years now. Other than an occasional visit to the People Concern or an annual backpack giveaway, I spend all of my Karsh time volunteering at the Sunday food pantry as one of the coordinators.

KC: How did you get involved with volunteering at the Karsh Center? What drew you to Karsh’s work and mission?

AC: I have to thank my mom for getting me involved with the Karsh Center. She had been wanting to volunteer at Karsh for a long time, and my dad said that if she was going, I was going, so reluctantly I got up early on a Sunday morning and went to the food pantry. But once I got there, I was hooked. I loved seeing the impact this small, volunteer-based organization could have on such a large community like Koreatown. 

Interestingly, as time went on and I gained more responsibilities, I gravitated away from the client-facing side of the pantry and became more focused on the volunteer experience, trying to advance Karsh’s mission of maximizing volunteer engagement and retention in the pantry. That remained the center of my attention until the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Due to new social distancing guidelines, we were no longer allowed to let pantry volunteers serve food on Sunday mornings. Instead, it was the Karsh staff and us coordinators who had to take over, so my focus naturally shifted back towards our client population. 

KC: What is your favorite memory of volunteering?

AC: The first memory that comes to mind actually doesn’t come from my time in the food pantry. My brain immediately went to the one time I represented the Karsh Center at the Taste of Larchmont, a fundraising event for HopeNet. I got to work as the host of Good Goose Café, a very popular Thai restaurant, which was very exciting. I loved telling people about HopeNet’s mission and encouraging them to volunteer at the Karsh Center food pantry. I even got to meet John Ross Bowie from the Big Bang Theory, which was quite the experience.

KC: What have you learned through volunteering at Karsh?

AC: I think I’ve learned the importance of framing the food pantry experience around showing volunteers the concrete impact they are having on our clients. Whether it be giving first-timers client-facing roles or announcing the number of families served at the end of each morning, it’s crucial to highlight how our volunteers are improving the lives of hundreds of people. That’s how we can make the food pantry experience more than just executing repetitive tasks early on a Sunday morning.

KC: What would you say to those thinking about volunteering?

AC: Try it out! If you have even the tiniest curiosity about the Karsh Center, try it out! And in my opinion, the sooner the better. The earlier you engage in volunteering, the more time you’ll have to explore different programs and discover which is best for you. Plus, it gives you more time to meet established volunteers in your area of choice and even rise the ranks, if you so desire.