Syd Mandelbaum

A Cedarhurst resident who has made it his mission to honor his parents, who survived the Holocaust, and to use his scientific expertise to reduce hunger and waste, is the Herald’s 2014 Person of the Year. Syd Mandelbaum, 64, of Oceanpoint Avenue, helps feed those in need through his Rock and Wrap It Up! poverty think tank.
Founded in 1991, RWU has collected 1.4 billion pounds of food, and makes use of the services of 6,000 volunteers in the U.S. and Canada. The organization has agreements with 81 professional sports teams across the continent, including the Giants and Jets, and entertainers like the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, to collect the unused food from games and concerts for donation to groups and agencies that distribute it to the needy.
Mandelbaum’s organization developed the Whole Earth Calculator in 2013, an app that measured carbon and poverty footprints by computing the number of meals and the volume of greenhouse gas emissions that the recovered food accounted for. An updated version, which calculates paper and plastic output, was unveiled last year, and is being used to support President Obama’s Climate Data Initiative.
A curriculum based on the Whole Earth Calculator, which teaches economics and environmental science from elementary through high school, was also created. The Lawrence School District began a pilot program in April, and RWU is in the process of introducing the curriculum in other states.
“[Rock and Wrap It Up!] honors the country that took my parents in, who were displaced after the Holocaust,” said Mandelbaum. “A lot of the things I do have anti-bias and anti-poverty components. Human rights are my responsibility.”