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The Larchmont resident of more than 20 years, who is replacing five-year president Melinda Lehman, joined the task force after his wife Anne Kimball, a Spanish teacher at Hommocks Middle School, first volunteered seven years ago in 2007.
Kimball began volunteering at the food pantry's Tuesday evening distribution because she speaks Spanish fluently, and therefore could sit at registration desk and help talk to the clients, some of whom do not speak English.
She asked the 67-year-old former magazine editor if he would be interested in helping her out, and thusly he began what would become a long working relationship.
According to Frouman, after some time volunteering, he was approached to take charge of the Tuesday evening distribution, and then later asked if he would consider being president. The rewarding feeling of helping families in need was one he wished to feel in a broader capacity.
"I'm impressed with the dedication and selflessness that everyone brings to whole endeavor. Working distribution shift, observing and getting to know clients, I realized we would have 200 families checking in with us. You get to know them at a distance, but you develop a connection with these people that are obviously struggling," he said.
Frouman said every so often, a client will come up to him or someone else and wholeheartedly thank them.
"It makes the whole endeavor worth it," he said.
He said his first goals as president are to increase educational materials disseminated about healthy eating.
While the task force is mandated to serve well-balanced meals, Frouman feels it could be doing more to educate their clients.
"If there's an opportunity to disseminate info about good eating habits, I would want to do that," he said.
Additionally, he hopes to begin one-on-one meetings with longtime volunteers to hear their views and solicit ideas on what the task force can be doing to expand its reach or do things better.
The task force also recently replaced their cumbersome registry system with a new, computerized directory.
Frouman hopes to further utilize the computer system to make the task force operations more efficient, though he believes it has already made leaps and bounds.
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