22 | JANUARY 19 • 2023 

OUR COMMUNITY

D

eb Ford of Livonia, 
a member of Temple 
Kol Ami in West 
Bloomfield, is this week’s 
Volunteer of the Week. 
A former kindergarten 
teacher, Ford became 
an activities director 
at an assisted 
living center after 
retirement and 
remained working 
with the senior 
population until she 
retired in 2020.
Ford’s passion for 
the elderly began 
with visiting local assisted 
living centers with her three 
dogs and husband, Roger, in 
1988. She has volunteered as 
a Friendly Visitor for Jewish 
Family Service and Jewish 
Senior Life. 
 She has delivered food 
to Yad Ezra clients for the 
last four years, including 
passing out Passover parcels 
and delivering turkeys for 
Thanksgiving. She said 
she especially liked the 
opportunity to chat with 
the recipients, as during 
the height of the pandemic, 
she was the only in-person 
contact many had.
Ford also serves on 
additional Temple Kol Ami 
(TKA) committees and the 
Relay for Life for Breast 
Cancer each summer, as well 
as the Jewish Food Festival, 
South Oakland Shelter food 

preparation for a week each 
year and TKA Mitzvah Day.
Ford currently works 
with the TKA Caring 
Community to set up a Meal 
Train for those in need of 
extra support during 
various challenges 
in their lives. She 
also volunteers by 
serving dinner a few 
times a year with 
TKA volunteers with 
Circles in Ann Arbor, 
an agency helping 
families recovering 
from poverty due to 
challenges in their lives. 
In 2020, she became 
volunteer coordinator for 
a pop-up food pantry at 
Temple Kol Ami. She runs 
a weekly drive-up pantry, 
coordinating and recruiting 
18 volunteers as well as 
organizing the sign-up list 
for the 80 families who visit 
the pantry. 
Ford says she gets great 
satisfaction from greeting 
and talking to every car 
that comes through the 
TKA parking lot. She knows 
everyone’s name and calls 
them if they don’t come to 
make sure they are OK. The 
group of volunteers at the 
pantry are well aware that 
the reason the lineup of cars 
is slow is because Ford and 
the neighbors need to catch 
up on how their week has 
been.

TKA’s Deb Ford lends a hand to 
many programs and projects. 

A Volunteering 
Dynamo

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

VOLUNTEER OF THE WEEK

Deb Ford

TOP: Deb Ford, Steve Merritt and Linda Kahn Gale at the Circles 
Dinner. ABOVE: Temple Kol Ami pantry volunteers Yefim Rakiter, Deb 
Ford and Margery Jablin.

