The Livingston Chapter of UNIC O has announced its selection of Stacey Rubinstein, president of Livingston Neighbors Helping Neighbors, as its 2023 Citizen of the Year. Rubinstein will be honored at a brunch on Sunday, April 23, at the Hanover Manor. She is the 66th recipient of this award, following in the footsteps of Brian Boyle, Walter Joyce, Nick Santinelli, Sandy and Len Goodman, Nancy Dinar, and Tom Cooney. Rubinstein is being recognized for her many years of leadership and service to the Livingston community, embodying the UNICO motto of “Service Above Self.”
Rubinstein is a lifelong volunteer, a Girl Scout leader, and president/ co-founder of Livingston Neighbors Helping Neighbors (LNHN), which manages the CHOW food pantry. She is a board member of Healthy Community/Healthy Youth initiative; a member of Livingston’s Kiwanis Club; and previously held leadership positions with Mt. Pleasant Elementary School’s PTA, Morristown Medical Center’s Family Advisory Council, and the United Way ofNorthemNew Jersey. Shewas chairwoman of the Livingston Food Day Committee and she worked with other volunteers to start a garden at Mt. Pleasant Elementary. She also worked with the CHOW food pantry prior to LNHN’s management when it was solely housed in Saint Philomena’s church.
Rubinstein is currently assistant director at Island Lake Camp, a sleep-away camp in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and she focuses on camper recruitment and camp administration. She works alongside her colleagues to build a community “that brings out the best in children and allows them to find and develop their passions/interests.' Prior to working at the camp, she enjoyed a 20 year career innon-profitmanagement. She worked for Girl Scouts ; YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities; Families and Work Institute; and as a consultant for non-profit organizations at KrasnePlows.
When she is not volunteering or working, Rubinstein enjoys art, spending time with her family and watching TV, usually crime dramas or cooking shows. She has a degree in human development and family studies from Cornell University and a master’s in public administration from New York University. She lives in Livingston with her husband, Daryl, and her twins, Andrew and Alexis, both students at Livingston High School.
Rubinstein started LNHN because she “truly believes that if you want to have compassion, kindness and generosity in your community you need to be a part of making that happen.”
Notes UNICO’s Martha Ackermann, “Stacey had seen that even though there were many resources in our community, there were also people in need. During a food day meeting at the YMCA many years ago, she learned from Chris Bickel that there was a food pantry run by Sister Barbara at Saint Philomena’s and it served some Livingston families. Stacey, who had lived in town for many years at the time, was surprised, as she didn’t realize the pantry existed. After learning more, she wanted to help. Stacey quickly became a volunteer for Sister Barbara and started making meals and delivering meals for local families.
“At the same time, she had been made aware of a family in her Livingston elementary school that was struggling and needed clothing, furniture and food. She worked with the school principal and others in the school to help that family and it was an incredible experience to see the generosity pour in. While the family remained anonymous, Stacey eventually connected with the mother by the mom’s choice and, hearing how helpful the effort to help had been, wanted to do more.”
As a member of the Livingston Food Day Committee, Rubinstein worked with Chris Bickel, a social studies supervisor for the Livingston Public Schools, and the committee to launch the Stuff the Bus food drive. A school bus was sent to Livingston schools to pick up non-perishable food donations. The bus also stopped at a few local businesses, including ShopRite and Kings supermarkets. “After that first food drive, when the bus was so full there was barely room for them to sit, they knew they were on to something,” said Ackermann. “They later ran multiple Stuff the Bus efforts, including a very successful one after superstorm Sandy, a community effort in which the town and school district worked together to transport many donations to Ventor.”
“It became clear that people would give and help when asked, but there needed to be a structure and a level of accountability to ensure funds were appropriately managed,” Ackermann continued. “Stacey had reconnected with Melissa Pristiolas, a current LNHN Executive Board member and parent of three children, who had been her neighbor when she first moved to Livingston. They started having discussions about creating opportunities for kindness and how they could contribute to efforts locally. They started talking about what an in-town effort could look like, and began investigating what was happening in other towns. They recruited Alan Karpas because they knew that he knew the inner workings of the town with his leadership with many organizations.
“After talking through various scenarios with Alan, they realized that having the township social worker involved in screening people in need would be key to confirm need and connect them with other state and local resources. Chris Bickel joined the efforts, as this was a natural next step to working together after very successful efforts to help the food insecure through the Food Day Committee.”
Karpas recruited Ackermann to the effort and it was suggested that LNHN become a non-profit as an affiliate organization of Livingston’s Healthy Community/HealthyYouth. As a next step, they recruited additional board members and took the necessary steps to launch LNHN as a non-profit with the main focus being its emergency fund.Afew years later, when Sister Barbara retired, Rubinstein, along with Karpas, worked with the Livingston Interfaith Clergy Association to operate the CHOW food pantry out of a new space in town hall. The space was secured with support of the Livingston Township Council.
Rubinstein connected with Nick Santinelli, who was a key volunteer for Sister Barbara, and she recruited him to continue his work through LNHN. At Saint Philomena Church, Santinelli continues to help families associated with the church who are food insecure, and LNHN shares food with them for this effort. His main efforts through LNHN are focused on food rescue, and Rubinstein has been instrumental in promoting opportunities for the community to help with Santinelli’s food rescue work or to make food that he then drives to Newark-based soup kitchens.
“Stacey and Nick are often touching base daily before 7 a.m., and while Nick does all the heavy lifting when it comes to the food rescue work, he values the leadership and coordination Stacey contributes to his work,” said Ackermann. “They are a great pair, and the only time he was ever really overwhelmed by her is when, instead of 500 sandwiches for MLK Day, there were over 7,000!”
Over the years, Rubinstein, through her efforts with LNHN, has coordinated countless food drives and worked with Livingston schools and PTAs on philanthropic events. She has coordinated efforts with local businesses and places of worship, met with service organizations to speak about needs in the community and secure donations, and has coordinated multiple community events. She has met with Scouting troops as well as families and children to discuss philanthropy and the food insecure.Along with members of the LNHN board and Nick Santinelli, she has provided multiple opportunities for members of the Livingston community to help the food insecure. From baked zitis to peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunches, thousands of meals have been donated to the food insecure in Livingston and in Newark and the effort, said Ackermann, “has been pretty remarkable. In fact, the rough plan that Stacey had worked through with Melissa and Alan Karpas of partnering with our township social workers to serve as a resource through the pantry or LNHN’s emergency fund has truly become a model of what a powerful and effective partnership looks like. And Stacey feels very strongly that both members of the LNHN board, volunteers and the Livingston community have all played a role in demonstrating what a community can accomplish when it cares.”
Serving as chairmen for the Citizen of the Year are Pat Ippolito ([email protected]) and Robert Bucich (rbucich@gmail. com). Ticket and ad journal information for the brunch will be released in the near future.
