“We need to end poverty right here where we live. We have the tools to do it. “
-Syd Mandelbaum
Gooooood Morning SuperForest!
I am in such a good mood today! Everything is feeling great.
I started the day off right by meeting up with a very cool cat, Mr. Syd Mandelbaum. Syd is the CEO and founder of a non-profit called Rock and Wrap It Up. Rock and Wrap It Up is an anti-poverty think tank that performs an amazing service. They do asset recovery, in the form of taking uneaten food from stadiums and venues, food that would have otherwise been thrown away, and they get it to soup kitchens and food banks all across the country.
Syd is a truly inspiring man. His organization has put over a hundred million plates of food in front of hungry people, and his efforts are expanding rapidly. To Syd, his work is environmentalism in its purest sense. Syd says that “by reducing the poverty footprint, we can reduce the carbon footprint.” Keep a burger out of the landfill and instead give it to a hungry person, and you save huge amounts of energy.
I was lucky enough to have breakfast with Syd and his lovely wife Diane this morning at a little diner uptown. Over my poached eggs and his super deluxe burger, Syd dropped some pearls of sweet science, and he did it so fast I could hardly get everything written down.
Sayeth Syd:
“We were green when green was just a color.”
“We don’t think outside of the box, we just have a bigger box.”
Rock and Wrap It Up started when Syd and some friends started a soup kitchen on Long Island, and got another friend to donate uneaten food from Jones Beach Ampitheater. Pretty soon, Syd’s soup kitchen had a reputation for high quality meals, (and some of the best fed volunteers) around, and things grew from there. One day, during a food pick up at Jones Beach, a glance at an artists tour rider (the list of demands that each artist provides each venue,) gave Syd an idea.
Syd went from artist to artist, and one by one got them to add to their tour riders the clause that ALL uneaten food assets would be recovered by Rock and Wrap It Up representatives, and there delivered to soup kitchens and food banks. Ozzy Osborne was an early convert to Rock and Wrap It Up resource recovery methods, as was Willie Nelson. Soon Syd had hundreds of top name bands all donating unused food to hungry people around the country.
Then Syd started going to sports teams, asking them to donate a stadiums-worth amount of uneaten food to help the local poor. He got the Yankees. He got the Knicks. He got everybody! Then Syd started going to hotels, and they not only donated food, they donated soaps and towels and kleenex boxes, and toilet paper.
Syd and his staff of six organize a country-wide volunteer force of over 5,000 people. You read that right: Syd and five other people (two of whose salaries are paid by grants) coordinate a massive organization that has served over a hundred million meals. Impact, son.
He’s saying these amazing things and I’m trying to keep toast crumbs out of my moleskine. Next, Syd related to me that all companies in the future will have to answer to a triple bottom line. Meaning: It’s not enough to just show a profit anymore. To be successful in the future requires companies and individuals alike to not only show profit, but to count the environmental cost, and the social network effected by your existence.
Making dollars to make dollars ain’t enough these days. Now you’ve got to be aware of the income generated, AND factor in the frog and tadpoles, and flounders, and mudskippers. You’ve got to provide for moms, and kids on bikes, and mailmen, and antelopes, and Mt. Waialeale. You’ve got to do more than just generate numbers, you’ve got to care about people and the places they live. Revolutionary thinking if you think about it.
Syd is way ahead of the curve on this one. Rock and Wrap It Up has been in full swing for nearly twenty years.
It reminds me of surfing, when you’re out on your board, and you see a set coming in, and everyone gets all perky trying to line up. And then the biggest, amazingest wave you ever saw comes rolling at you, and just before you duck under it, you see this one amazing old dude, and he’s surfing that mean wave to shreds. Syd is that surfer. He saw the wave coming a while back, and now he’s in the perfect position to ride this incredible wave of connectivity, caring, and positivity that’s sweeping across the globe. I hope to continue to learn from Syd, our discussions always prompt much reflection and thought.
I meant this post to focus more on Rock and Wrap It Up as an organization, but I guess that post will come next. There’s so much more to tell!
Syd, you are an inspiration and I’m proud to call you friend.
I look forward to writing and posting about you and Rock and Wrap It Up for years to come.
Much love to you, Syd, and also to Miss Diane, your staff (Hi Abby!) and your 5,000 volunteers.
Check out Rock and Wrap It Up. They have numbers that will make you feel good.
Yours,
Jackson
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