NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams:  Rocking out—with a mission

Thanks so much to Peter Alexander and the team at NBC Nightly news for this fantastic piece!  For those of you that missed it, the segment that aired last night is posted above (and a web supplement featuring our founder Syd Mandelbaum can be found here).  The video does a great job of explaining our work in several of our largest sectors.

For more information on what we do and how we do it, head to our official website — www.rockandwrapitup.org!  Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter for minute-to-minute updates on the things we are doing in New York, Boston, and around the country!

2 years ago

elephantmagblog asked: I think you're a great team and would like to learn more about getting involved.
Thanks!

Thank you!  We appreciate the feedback more than you know :) 

For more information on how to get involved, head to our official website at www.rockandwrapitup.org and fill out our volunteer form.  A member of our staff will contact you when it reaches us, at which point we’ll try to get you more information about opportunities to help us fight hunger and poverty in your area.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

2 years ago

Rock and Wrap It Up! on NBC Nightly News

Great news! This evening, Rock and Wrap It Up! will be features on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.  The piece will feature our work in hotels and sports, showing to viewers how our organization has been working to reduce hunger and poverty in North America for over fifteen years.  

Check your local listings for airing times, and be sure to check our website and other social networking pages for a web version in the coming weeks!

2 years ago

Arena Leftovers Assigned A Mission

Check out this great article published in the January 16, 2011 issue of The Boston Globe! Thanks to connections made by Rock and Wrap It Up!, the Boston Rescue Mission (which has been serving Boston’s indigent population for over one hundred years) has found itself receiving large donations of prepared but unsold food from the TD Bank Garden located in the heart of the city.  Home of the Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics, the arena started out as a Sports Wrap! partner though those sporting organizations.  Recently, however, it has come on board and began donating all food from all events held at the facility.

2 years ago

How the AFC Championship Game Will Help Feed Pittsburgh

This past weekend was a huge one in NFL football, with some of the nation’s favorite teams meeting defeat at the hand of teams they’d found victory over in the regular season.  For Rock and Wrap It Up!, playoff season creates a unique food donation situation.  Though each member of our staff has its own NFL favorite, the work that we do means that we wish that all our partner franchises could go on playing throughout the year so as to ensure a constant source of food for the agencies they’ve helped feed during the regular season.  We know by now that this will never be the case.

Thanks to key season wins by the Pittsburgh Steelers, however, this year’s AFC Championship will be one whose societal contribution goes hand-in-hand with our need to end hunger around the United States.  

Our relationship with the National Hockey League created a fantastic opportunity earlier this year.  When the Pittsburgh Penguins hosted the Washington Capitals for the 2011 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, Rock and Wrap It Up! staff went behind the scenes to meet with representatives at Heinz Field to discuss the Sports Wrap! program.  What resulted was a new partnership that adds Pittsburgh’s beloved football arena to the list of venues around North America donating their prepared but not sold concessions, luxury box food, and clubhouse leftovers to the area’s hungry.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets face off on Sunday, January 23rd at 6:30pm at Heinz Field for a chance to make it to the Super Bowl.

Whether you’re a fan of either team or not, we can all say that Heinz Field has given us all a little something extra to root for on Sunday.

2 years ago
The gift pile at the First Congregational Church at this year’s Rock and Wrap It Up! Gift Give Away.   Over 1,500 gifts and clothing items were distributed to the 700+ guests that joined our staff and volunteers on the morning of Christmas Eve for a breakfast of bagels, hot chocolate, and festive desserts.

The gift pile at the First Congregational Church at this year’s Rock and Wrap It Up! Gift Give Away.   Over 1,500 gifts and clothing items were distributed to the 700+ guests that joined our staff and volunteers on the morning of Christmas Eve for a breakfast of bagels, hot chocolate, and festive desserts.

2 years ago
Happy New Year, everyone!  How was everyone’s holiday season? The holidays are always a busy time of year for Rock and Wrap It Up!.  As an anti-poverty think tank, we are always doing work to spread hope and cheer—two words often used during this time of year—to the less fortunate. As soon as Thanksgiving ends, it is time for us to begin preparing for the annual Rock and Wrap It Up! Gift Give Away.  In the two weeks prior to Christmas Eve, volunteers from all over Long Island join our staff in the wrapping of gifts at the Woodmere Firehouse.  Everything from children’s toys and books to clothing items for men, women, and children of all ages were wrapped while we dined on pizzas and sodas provided by local eateries (with leftovers, naturally, donated to a nearby soup kitchen).  The picture included above is just one of many from the ten days that we were at the firehouse making gift packages for the hundreds of people that were to join us at the First Congregational Church of Rockaway on Christmas Eve morning. Look for more photos in the posts to come! 

Happy New Year, everyone!  How was everyone’s holiday season?

The holidays are always a busy time of year for Rock and Wrap It Up!.  As an anti-poverty think tank, we are always doing work to spread hope and cheer—two words often used during this time of year—to the less fortunate.

As soon as Thanksgiving ends, it is time for us to begin preparing for the annual Rock and Wrap It Up! Gift Give Away.  In the two weeks prior to Christmas Eve, volunteers from all over Long Island join our staff in the wrapping of gifts at the Woodmere Firehouse.  Everything from children’s toys and books to clothing items for men, women, and children of all ages were wrapped while we dined on pizzas and sodas provided by local eateries (with leftovers, naturally, donated to a nearby soup kitchen).  The picture included above is just one of many from the ten days that we were at the firehouse making gift packages for the hundreds of people that were to join us at the First Congregational Church of Rockaway on Christmas Eve morning.

Look for more photos in the posts to come! 

2 years ago

Where Kindness--And Thank-Yous--Abound

Click the link to read a great piece written for the Long Island Herald about Rock and Wrap It Up!’s annual Thanksgiving event.  The article details the Brinton family’s experience serving food to the less fortunate at the First Congregational Church on Beach 94th Street in Far Rockaway, Queens.  The author, who resides within the confines of the Bellmore-Merrick Centeral High School District, writes of both his history with the organization and the organization’s history.  He and his family joined 80+ volunteers in the serving of over 600 plates of food!

For photos from this year’s event, check out the Facebook album! 

Thanks so much to Scott for writing this fantastic piece, and to the dedicated volunteers and staff for making this event such a huge success, and for making Thanksgiving 2010 one we could all be thankful for.

2 years ago
Hey 30 Rock fans — It’s Kenneth, holding the Traveling T-Shirt!  This photo was taken backstage at the second of three Vampire Weekend shows at Radio City Music Hall in September 2010.  We love it when our work melds perfectly into one Kodak moment—Both NBC Universal and Vampire Weekend are supporters of Rock and Wrap It Up! Congratulations to the band on their Grammy nomination for the album Contra, announced yesterday evening. Head here to check out more photos of people holding the Traveling T-Shirt.  You might spot a few familiar faces… Photo credit:  Ashley Hillis, Rock and Wrap It Up! Media Director

Hey 30 Rock fans — It’s Kenneth, holding the Traveling T-Shirt!  This photo was taken backstage at the second of three Vampire Weekend shows at Radio City Music Hall in September 2010.  We love it when our work melds perfectly into one Kodak moment—Both NBC Universal and Vampire Weekend are supporters of Rock and Wrap It Up! Congratulations to the band on their Grammy nomination for the album Contra, announced yesterday evening.

Head here to check out more photos of people holding the Traveling T-Shirt.  You might spot a few familiar faces…

Photo credit:  Ashley Hillis, Rock and Wrap It Up! Media Director

2 years ago
Photo credit: Ashley Hills, Rock and Wrap It Up! Media Director Here’s a great shot of the lead singer from Kitten rocking out during their set at CMJ’s official opening party, Conflict of Interest.  Aside from being a fantastic show with great performances from up-and-comers like Bo Burnham, Reggie Watts, Oh Land, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.—in addition to more established bands like Nada Surf—the event was a great one for Rock and Wrap It Up!.  It brought in a slew of new contacts in the music industry while also giving us a chance to let an entirely new audience in on what it is we do and how we can work together to reduce poverty and hunger in the United States and around the world.    Thanks so much to the people over at The Syndicate for making this possible! Head to their website for a fantastic video and photo recap of the event.  Don’t forget to head to our Facebook page for even more exclusive photos!    

Photo credit: Ashley Hills, Rock and Wrap It Up! Media Director

Here’s a great shot of the lead singer from Kitten rocking out during their set at CMJ’s official opening party, Conflict of Interest.  Aside from being a fantastic show with great performances from up-and-comers like Bo Burnham, Reggie Watts, Oh Land, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.—in addition to more established bands like Nada Surf—the event was a great one for Rock and Wrap It Up!.  It brought in a slew of new contacts in the music industry while also giving us a chance to let an entirely new audience in on what it is we do and how we can work together to reduce poverty and hunger in the United States and around the world.   

Thanks so much to the people over at The Syndicate for making this possible! Head to their website for a fantastic video and photo recap of the event.  Don’t forget to head to our Facebook page for even more exclusive photos!    

2 years ago