Part of the Same Spirit

By Nancy Pasternack, *Yuba-Sutter spaghetti dinners benefit those in need* - Appeal Democrat - CA, USA; Monday, January 23, 2012

They weren't intended to coincide. But two spaghetti dinner events scheduled for Feb. 11 are intended to benefit the area's homeless and needy.

An annual dinner sponsored by the Yuba City Kiwanis will raise money for Hands of Hope, which provides resources for local homeless families.

The Kiwanis club dinner is the fourth such fundraising effort for Hands of Hope. Last year's dinner raised more than $3,000, according to Gennis Zeller, who is helping coordinate the event.

And a Tierra Buena couple with ties to the Yuba City Islamic Center have organized an event through St. John's Episcopal Church to feed the homeless that same night in Marysville.

Victor Krambo said the two events have the same goal of reaching out to the poor. He hopes the free hot meal in Marysville will become a monthly event.

"Our interest in doing this comes from our faith," he said of his ties to Islam, and to Sufism, the Muslim sect to which he and his wife, Rahma Krambo, belong.

But the Feb. 11 event is intended as an interfaith effort, Krambo said.

"All religious traditions encourage charity, and looking after the poor," he said. "It's not any different for a Christian or Jewish or Buddhist person. We are our brother's keeper and are responsible for each other as human beings."

The mosque in Yuba City does not have a state-certified commercial kitchen, which is necessary to cook large-scale meals for public consumption. So Krambo and a handful of his friends are collaborating with members of the Episcopal Church at Eighth and D streets, he said.

Krambo and his wife are active community volunteers, and their work includes involvement with Hands of Hope.

"It's part of the same spirit," said Victor Krambo. "We have to find ways to give our time, our wealth, and our compassion."

Some of the clients who seek services from Hands of Hope, he said, are not so different from the presently well-clothed and fed.

"You've got people living in their cars now who had a nice house five years ago. Some don't have extended families to help them," Krambo said.

"You have people in the river bottoms because they don't have good credit," he said. "It's easy to be judgmental, and I can kick dirt and spit with the best of them, but we don't know the whole story behind somebody's life."

[Visit Hands of Hope.
Picture from the Islamic Center of Yuba City website.]