By Hedy Bass
- WHAT’S GIVING? -
Giving Is Pargh
For The Course
Courtesy of J Life Magazine
(central Florida’s Jewish Lifestyle Magazine)
You may know him as The Gadget Guru. For a decade, Orlando’s
Andy Pargh enlightened and entertained audiences as a contributing
correspondent on the TODAY show in the ‘80s and ‘90s. One
part journalist, one part businessman, and one part showman,
Andy gained renown for being an expert on consumer electronics
and new technologies. One of his best-known segments on the
TODAY show featured Andy teaching then-host Matt Lauer how
to use the internet to send and receive email. Since beginning his
career with Texas Instruments in the late 1970s, Andy has spent a
lifetime involved in new products and technology. Though he’s
claimed to have retired more than once, the former Tennessean,
who now calls Central Florida home, remains as busy as ever.
Working with Megan Yarmuth of
Toasted, the famed Central
Florida restaurant known for
gastronomically elevating the
classic American grilled cheese
sandwich, Andy was able to
provide funding to the restaurant’s
Toasted Food Truck
allowing the kitchen-on-wheels
to visit multiple locations to feed
frontline workers.
When Andy offered funds to The
Jewish Pavilion to provide meals
for staff at several of the senior
facilities where there are Jewish
residents, Pavilion leaders couldn’t
have been more delighted.
Andy Pargh
“It was incredibly generous of Andy to come to us with the idea,”
says Nancy Ludin, CEO of The Jewish Pavilion. “I contacted eight
of our sponsoring facilities to let them know. I wanted to thank
them for being so wonderful to us. I was especially excited to
learn that Toasted could provide kosher meals. Staff at each
location had a full-course meal of grilled cheese, coleslaw, mac
and cheese, cookie, and beverage. It was a great way for us to say
thank-you for what they do.”
Nancy estimates approximately 400
meals were served.
In May, the Toasted food truck also visited
The Roth Family JCC, providing
meals for more than 90 JCC employees
and their families and fed every resident
and staffer at the Kinneret Apartments.
Thanks to generous funding by The Pargh Foundation,
the Toasted Food Truck has been able to cook and deliver
hot meals to frontline workers throughout Central Florida.
A man of many interests and passions, Andy has been a charitable
supporter of many local organizations. As the founder of The
Pargh Foundation, funded by the charitable trusts of his parents,
Madeline and Eugene Pargh, Andy has been able to provide gifts,
grants, and endowments to organizations in Tennessee, Florida,
and around the world that honor his parents’ legacy of giving.
When the COVID-19 pandemic upended businesses and
profoundly impacted essential workers, especially those in the
medical community, Andy brought the powers of his business
acumen, problem-solving, and philanthropy to help. “I saw that
healthcare workers were overwhelmed, and I wondered what I
could do,” he says.
With a focus on the Jewish community, Andy reached out to
several organizations, including The Jewish Pavilion, The Roth
Family JCC, and Hillel at Stetson University, with the idea of
feeding people on the frontlines of the pandemic.
“I was so thrilled when Andy called to
talk about the idea of providing meals
for The Roth Family JCC employees,”
says Keith Dvorchik, CEO. “Over the
past few months, our employees have
dealt with unparalleled challenges, and
through Andy’s generosity and Toasted,
we were able to do something nice
for them. Seeing the smiles on their faces, the joy in their eyes,
was priceless. I will never be able to sufficiently thank Andy,
The Pargh Foundation, and Toasted for what they did for our
employees.”
Andy’s philanthropy has extended to AdventHealth in DeLand and
Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, and to Stetson
University. As of early May, approximately 3,000 meals have been
served by the Toasted Food Truck, thanks to The Pargh
Foundation’s funding.
As Andy sees it, it’s a win-win for all. “We’re saying thank you to
nurses, staffers, cleaners, EMT personnel, firefighters, police,
and people who have been furloughed,” Andy says. “We just want
them to know we’re thinking of them. In doing this, we’re also
giving business to local restaurants. I like getting things done.
We can see a need and implement a program overnight. That’s
the benefit of being nimble.”
Through The Pargh Foundation, Andy continues to embody the
legacy of his parents, Madeline and Eugene, people who understood
that even the smallest gesture of recognition and kindness
can indeed be a very big deal.
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