Bernie Flynn has spent six years running Mercer Street Friends — guiding it through a pandemic, securing a new warehouse, expanding the Community Schools initiative from three locations to six.
He’ll be forever known for his efforts to combat food insecurity and raise educational attainment in Trenton.
Monday night in Ewing, at the organization’s Sixth Annual Leadership Awards Celebration — a night that celebrated his retirement — he closed with a personal move that truly moved a gathering of a few hundred and won’t soon be forgotten.
Standing in the food bank warehouse he helped build, Flynn surprised the crowd — and his wife — by presenting Ann Flynn with the first-ever Mercer Street Friends Unsung Hero Award, created especially for the occasion.
He laid out the case in full: Ann has been the family’s guiding light and supporting star while Flynn led the nonprofit — and when he led NJM for a decade prior.
And when he retired from NJM and told Ann his dream was to be the CEO of a nonprofit, Flynn said she looked at him funny for a moment — and then went all in. He noted that Ann also serves as a volunteer, packing food in the very warehouse where the crowd was standing.
“Honey, you are the unsung hero,” Flynn said, before the crowd responded with a standing ovation.
It was, by any measure, the moment of the night.
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The evening recognized three honorees:
Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies: It received the Corporate Leadership and Public Service Award for nearly three decades of volunteer service and philanthropic partnership dating to 1998.
State Sen. Shirley Turner (D, Ewing Township): She received the 2026 Humanitarian Award for her decades of advocacy for education and community investment, including her role in securing $2 million in state funding to expand Mercer Street Friends’ Community Schools initiative.
Board Chair Ken Blackwell: He received the Robert M. Appelbaum Service Award for his leadership since joining the board in 2017 and serving as chair since 2020.
The evening also marked a leadership transition: Randall West, who has served as Chief Administrative Officer for the past year, assumes the CEO role on July 1. Flynn will join the board of trustees.
Flynn told the crowd West was ready for the role.
And he said it in front of Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the highly regarded and recently retired CEO of Feeding America, a surprise guest at the event.
To be sure, it was a night full of special moments and poignant thoughts.
Here are a dozen other great comments from the various speakers (including one from yours truly, the MC):
12. Flynn (paying tribute to James “Butter” Allen)
The outgoing CEO said he couldn’t have done anything without Allen, the do-everything chief operating officer. Flynn told the crowd Allen was the driving force behind the building they were standing in. To be sure, another unsung hero.
11. West (on the ‘we’ poem)
West, making his public debut in the role, invoked Muhammad Ali, reciting his two-word poem at a Harvard commencement: “Me … We.” West used it to frame his vision for Mercer Street Friends — that nothing the organization does happens alone.
10. Flynn (on a $2 million moment)
Flynn credited Senator Turner’s fierce advocacy — and testimony by Mercer Street Friends staff before the Senate Education Committee — with unlocking $2 million in state funding that allowed the Community Schools initiative to expand from three schools to six, serving students in Trenton, Hamilton, and Ewing.
9. Presenter Wendy Kane (while presenting Blackwell)
Kane drew a direct line between the award’s namesake and its recipient. Bob Appelbaum, she said, asked one question when Mercer Street Friends opened its first building in 1958: “What will we do with this building? Let’s put it to good Quakerly use.” Kane’s point: Ken Blackwell has been asking the same question ever since.
8. West (on the Bloomberg partnership)
While introducing the Bloomberg award, he traced how the relationship grew from a single grant nearly three decades ago into something far deeper. “What began as a generous contribution became an enduring and deepening partnership,” he said.
7. Misti Pasigos (while accepting Bloomberg award)
Bloomberg’s New Jersey Corporate Philanthropy lead made clear the relationship with Mercer Street Friends isn’t transactional. In 2025 alone, Bloomberg volunteers logged more than 1,000 volunteer hours and 18 days of service — assembling food kits, supporting backpack drives, and helping with winter coat collections.
6. Turner (on corporate citizenship)
The senator didn’t let the Bloomberg recognition pass without making a broader point. She said she was grateful to be honored alongside a corporate partner “concerned about the community, and not just the almighty dollar” — a line that landed with particular weight given the current climate.
5. Blackwell (on his daughter)
In one of the night’s lighter moments, Blackwell acknowledged his daughter Katie in the crowd and admitted what every parent at an event like this is quietly thinking: “You’re trying to tell your children that you’re cool and you do stuff — this third-party validation is awesome.”
4. Turner (on the village approach)
The senator invoked the African proverb — it takes a village to raise a child — and turned it into a compliment. Mercer Street Friends, she said, had built that village deliberately, pulling together government, the private sector, community members, and volunteers. “You have created that magnificent village,” she told the crowd.
3. Blackwell (on working together)
Board Chair Ken Blackwell closed his remarks with a rallying call, listing what Mercer Street Friends can accomplish when partners show up: healthy starts for newborns, literacy for young people, diplomas for adults, food security for families. “Together we can fight against food insecurity and keep people fed, which is ultimately what makes everything happen,” he said. He closed with a three-peat that brought the room up: “Together we can, together we can, together we can.”
2. Turner (on learning on an empty stomach)
While accepting the 2026 Humanitarian Award, Turner went back to basics: “You cannot learn on an empty stomach,” she said, drawing on her roots as a Trenton public school teacher to explain why food security and education are inseparable — and why she isn’t done fighting for both.
1. Bergeron (on Flynn’s legacy)
He noted New Jersey has a long history of leaders who put the good of the state and the needs of the communities first, mentioning Art Ryan, Dennis Bone, Barry Ostrowsky, Ray Chambers and the late great Al Koeppe and Caren Franzini. “Bernie Flynn has earned a spot in that Hall of Fame,” he said.
