Feeding a need on Thanksgiving

For the 25th year under the Rock and Wrap It Up! banner, a free Thanksgiving Day feast will be hosted by the Cedarhurst-based anti-poverty think tank at St. John Baptist Church at 7405 Rockaway Beach Blvd. in Far Rockaway from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More than 700 meals are served and more than 150 volunteers prepare and serve the food. A take-out service is provided, a local free taxi service is available and kosher meals are served with advanced notice. Overall, this is the 26th free feast that Cedarhurst resident Syd Mandelbaum, the founder of Rock and Wrap It Up!, has been involved with.
“We started in 1991 as Rock and Wrap It Up!, prior to that [the feast] was part of the Claddagh Inn program, which was a soup kitchen in Rockaway that I was president of,” Mandelbaum said.
Throughout the years, Mandelbaum has enlisted the help of many businesses and individuals.
The Bagelry on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst has been pumping out bagels, sandwiches and spreads since 1983. Owner Vinny Matuozzi said he first met Mandelbaum when he opened his business and then Mandelbaum told him about the Thanksgiving feast. For the past 25 years, Matuozzi has provided breakfast for the volunteers.

“He let know what he was doing and I was all on board,” Matuozzi said. “I do it to give back. It’s a great community and it’s been great to me. And great volunteers always deserve something.”
Mark Schechner, the owner of Walls Bakery on Broadway in Hewlett, has been donating pastries for the past 20 years. “Syd approached me and said whatever you are not selling that is fresh could you donate,” said Schechner, whose business has been around for 35 years. Asked how many pastries he donates, Schechner said: “I never counted, a lot.”
Having businesses, especially sporting events and musical concerts, donate unused food and other items to help support organizations that assist in feeding those in need is the mission that Mandelbaum founded the nonprofit Rock and Wrap It Up! In the succeeding years, it has expanded to include such things as a whole earth calculator app that converts the total pounds of paper products and plastics that are diverted from landfills into the amount of carbon dioxide that is not produced and a curriculum that teaches middle school and high school students about reducing poverty and minimizing humankind’s carbon footprint.
Along with the Bagelry and Walls, there is a laundry list of helpers, including Friendlier Pizza and the Chateau Coffee Shop, both in Woodmere, the Woodmere Club and Seawane Club in Hewlett Harbor cooking turkeys and hams; Woodmere residents Michelle and Edward Shorenstein donating the turkeys and hams, Merrill Lynch of Hewlett providing funding and volunteers, Starbucks in Hewlett helping with the volunteer breakfast and event co-chair Saul Lerner, a Woodmere resident who recruits volunteers among the faculty from Bellmore and Merrick schools. Port Washington-based Adam and Eve donates all the juice drinks.
Donations can be dropped off at 405 Oceanpoint Ave. in Cedarhurst. Checks can be made out to Rock and Wrap It Up! and mailed to the same address. For take-out plates and rides home call (516) 295-0670.