iStock.com/Alexei Cruglicov
iStock.com/Alexei Cruglicov

Wondering how JewishBoston.com packs and ships 720 Shabbat of the Month Club boxes every month? Meet Mark Friedman, the man behind the box! Mark is the sales manager at Triangle Inc., a nonprofit fulfillment agency that has been implementing JewishBoston.com’s new initiative. Mark handles the logistics of supervising and organizing a large team of employees, as well as communicates with project managers from all kinds of organizations on various projects. And that only scratches the surface! To put it simply, Mark is a tireless jack-of-all-trades, without whom Shabbat of the Month Club would be a pile of failed box assemblies scattered on the floor of the JewishBoston.com office. We asked Mark to tell us more about his job and his company’s important mission.

created at: 2013-05-22

Tell us about Triangle Inc.’s mission.

Triangle Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides employment and employment services, job training, and community living to people with disabilities. Triangle operates 10 residences and four employment training centers in Eastern Massachusetts. At our headquarters in Malden, more than 120 participants come daily to our fulfillment center, where they are employed in a variety of jobs for our contract services customers. Various products are assembled, packaged, and shipped to distribution centers, retailers, and sometimes even residential customers (like Shabbat of the Month Club subscribers!).

What kinds of people utilize Triangle Inc.’s employment services?

Triangle serves more than 1,000 people annually who participate in the many programs and services we offer. They come from all over Eastern Massachusetts to our sites in Malden, Salem, and Braintree. Some are students from local high schools who are given academic and vocational training. Our adult participants have the opportunity to participate in a variety of classes, depending on their interest and needs, in addition to working in the fulfillment center.

How did you begin working there?

Following college, I began my career working at a jigsaw puzzle and game manufacturer in Watertown. It was there as the production manager that I learned about Triangle Inc., which at the time was called Project Triangle. I often used the services of Project Triangle for extra production-work help during busy seasons or when new products pushed the limits of our capacity, and I had found it to be a convenient and effective way to get the job done. Imagine an on-call work force when you need them that does the work at their own place and that supervises the job, guaranteeing high quality. Not to mention a place where the price is fair and reasonable! That was Project Triangle.

As luck would have it, they were looking to hire a plant manager to grow their operation. At the same time, my company was in the process of being sold and moving to another state, so the timing was right. That was more than 30 years ago, and I have been in this field ever since.

What’s your favorite part of the job?

I love seeing how proud our participants are when they receive their paycheck on Fridays. I also enjoy shipping a truckload of products to our customers knowing that it was made possible by so many hard-working individuals who haven’t yet been given opportunities in the community, but hopefully will soon.

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