'Syd & Malcolm' podcast addresses making a civic difference

Rock and Wrap it Up! has been serving food to those in need for decades and recently, chief executive officer and founder Syd Mandelbaum began a podcast to increase awareness about his organization and others that address food waste and hunger.

When Rock and Wrap it Up! began, volunteers collected leftover food from concerts to donate to local communities. In 1994, the organization began work nationally, partnering with bands such as the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith.

The organization then expanded its efforts, working with the federal Department of Agriculture to begin school programs and partnering with sports teams, hotels, and the television and film industry.

The idea to start a podcast first began when Mandelbaum was invited as a guest on the podcast “Many Shades of Green” to discuss his algorithm that calculates how much greenhouse gas is diverted for pounds of food that are donated. 

“I spoke on 'Many Shades of Green’ and one of their listeners was a producer of a YouTube podcast and called me up,” Mandelbaum said. “He said ‘I'll pay for all of this. I would love you to do a series for me.’”

The producer was Malcolm Burman who runs Malcolm Presents, a web platform that hosts podcasts, blogs and radio shows. Burman serves as the co-host of the "Syd & Malcolm" podcast, but lets Mandelbaum take the lead of the programming. “I let him decide the guests and the content of the show because it's his project,” Burman said. “I look at it as a producer.”

Mandelbaum chooses the guests who mostly consist of people he has met and worked with over the years of running Rock and Wrap it Up! The guests range from community organizers to religious leaders, all of who further the organization’s mission of addressing hunger and poverty. Burman believes that the podcast shows that there are so many ways to make a difference in a community.

“If you listen to the show, there’s so many people that care,” Burman said. “And it takes one person. It takes one person at a time. You don’t have to solve all the problems of the world, but you just have to do one thing that you can do.”

Mandelbaum hopes that the podcast attracts more people to help with Rock and Wrap it Up!. “The podcast is just a great [thing] for me to recommend to people that may not know the organization well,” Mandelbaum said. “It’s also a great way of hopefully raising money ... We’re always looking for people to donate to us, to help us keep up our vital work.”

They have currently released all 16 episodes of the podcast but hope to do another set. “As long as we can get people to come on the show,” Burman said. “I think the whole point of the show is to expose Rock and Wrap it Up! to as many people as possible so he can get more and more food to the people who need it.”