 JULY 9 • 2020 | 13

Gray said she and her 
ex-husband had a hard time 
getting along before the pan-
demic. The need to figure 
out the questions raised by 
COVID-19 forced them to 
become better communica-
tors. 
 “I think the one good 
thing about this is that we’ve 
learned … to be nicer to each 
other and to talk to each 
other differently,
” she said. 

LACK OF SUPPORT 
Segal found out about the 
Single Parents Alliance 
and Resource Connection 
(SPARC), a program run for 
Jewish single parents out of 
the JCC, when her daughter 
was about 2 years old. But 
late in 2018, the organization’s 
funding was abruptly cut off. 
SPARC no longer provides 
programming, though a 
Facebook page remains to 
connect local single parents. 
When the COVID-19 
pandemic hit, Segal became 
concerned about the lack 
of support for Jewish single 
parents in the community. As 
a social worker and therapist, 
“I'm always paying attention 
to this kind of stuff,
” Segal 
said. “It’s not just personal — 
it's my profession, too.
” 

After posting on the 
Facebook page and talking 
back and forth in the com-
ments with a few other single 
parents, Segal said she finally 
got a private message from 
the group’s administrator ask-
ing if she was doing OK. 
“I said that I was doing 
fine, but maybe the commu-
nity needed some attention,
” 
she said. “
And that was the 
last I heard about it.
” 
With a lack of institutional 
support from the community, 
single parents have looked 
elsewhere for assistance. 
In Ann Arbor, widowed 
dad Steve Kaganove and 
his son Nathan, who has 
Asperger’s, have kept their 
biweekly appointments with 
a social worker, though those 
now take place virtually. Still, 
“I kind of wish I had more 
parents to talk to,
” he said. 
Gray and her neighbor Jen 
Kopnick, who also has two 
daughters, have found that 
support in each other and 
through other single-mom 
friends. 
“We laugh, because it’s like 
a little team that her and I 
have become,
” Kopnick said. 
Kopnick also said the 
pandemic has started a new 
culture in her neighborhood 

r 
r 
r 
f 
g 
.

continued on page 14

Jen Kopnick, 
Chloe and Emma

COURTESY OF JEN KOPNICK

Click. Call. Give Now. 
www.hfldetroit.org • 248.723.8184

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48301

@HFLDetroit

 

STORY
My
STORY
My

A few years ago, Karen Kahn Schultz and
Stefan, her business partner, met in a cooking group,
were both transitioning from other jobs, and catering
together seemed a natural choice. They created Nosh
Pit Detroit, a food truck that broke new ground with
creative vegan comfort food.
They catered, they made the rounds of the Detroit
food truck scene, and the concept was so popular,
Nosh Pit Detroit was named Best of Hour Detroit
Food Truck of the Year in 2018, 2019, and now 2020.
“As things grew, we needed a free-standing prep
kitchen of our own, and fell into a restaurant space in
Hamtramck where we have a few tables, and do a
great carry-out business,” Karen said. “Of course,
quarantine changed everything. Events and truck
service stopped at the beginning of the outdoor season,
but we decided to pivot and focus on our customers.
Vegan diets require a certain balance that you usually
can’t get from standard food pantries if you’re food
insecure, as so many were during the shutdown. We took
donations to help cover the cost, worked with our local
farms and suppliers to create balanced grocery boxes,
and made hundreds each week. We are back to
catering and serving carry-out at the restaurant, but not
everyone returned to work, so we still help where we can.”
“Hebrew Free Loan’s Marvin I. Danto Small
Business Loan Program supported our ideas,
from the truck to the restaurant, and when things shut
down, they worked with us there, as well,” Karen said.
“HFL is one of the most beneficial programs in our
community. Without them, I wouldn’t have my business
at all. A whole bunch of things fell into place, and that
told me we should be going down this path. HFL is
one of those things.”

