Martin Rybak was born in 1980 in Tarnów, Poland, and grew up in New Jersey. He runs the family business Piast Meats & Provisions in Garfield, founded in New Jersey in 1991 by his parents, Henry and Maria. In October 2027, as Grand Marshal, he will lead the 90th Pulaski Day Parade up Fifth Avenue.
From Tarnów to northern New Jersey
Tarnów lies about 50 miles east of Kraków. Martin was still very young when his family emigrated to the United States and settled in northern New Jersey. Home was Polish: shopping at Staś Meat Market in Passaic, Sunday Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary, and on Saturdays the Adam Mickiewicz Polish Supplementary School in Passaic, where he learned the Polish language, history and culture.
He admits that as a child he did not much enjoy Polish school. He did not yet realize how important it would become later in his life. After high school he went to Massachusetts, where he earned a degree in economics and later an MBA from Boston College.
Piast: a family business with a story
After arriving in America, Henry Rybak drove a taxi and worked at a car wash, as a painter, a carpenter and a building contractor. In 1991 he and his wife Maria opened the first Piast store in Maplewood, New Jersey; the business later moved to Garfield. Their dream was to share Polish culinary traditions with the Polish community in America. They named the business after Poland’s first royal dynasty.
Martin worked at Piast from the age of 12, on weekends and after Polish school. He still remembers the employees from those years; some of them still shop at Piast today. When his father died suddenly in 2020, responsibility for the company fell to him. Together with the team, he steered Piast through the pandemic, and he says the business is stronger today than ever before.
Piast regularly serves the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, the Permanent Mission of Poland to the UN, the Kosciuszko Foundation and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, among others. Guests have included Polish presidents Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Bronisław Komorowski, Andrzej Duda and Karol Nawrocki, and the company has catered for Anna Lewandowska and Martha Stewart. Store information and contact details are in the Piast Meats & Provisions profile on PolishPages.
Giving back to the community
Over the years, the Rybak family has supported Polish schools, parishes, community organizations, sports clubs and charitable causes in the United States and in Poland. Since 2008 Martin has been a member of the Garfield Pulaski Parade Committee of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr parish. In 2010 the Garfield City Council honored him with a resolution for his work in the community.
In 2011 his father served as Garfield’s marshal in the Pulaski Day Parade, and Martin marched beside him up Fifth Avenue together with the company’s employees. In 2027 the Freddie Porter Memorial Scholarship Fund in Garfield will honor him as its Man of the Year.
Family
Martin is married to Joanna. They have three children: Alana, Lukas and Christopher. The family often travels to Poland. Henry died in 2020, but his legacy lives on through his wife and children.
Grand Marshal of the 90th Pulaski Day Parade
On October 15, 2026, the General Pulaski Memorial Parade Committee unanimously selected him as Grand Marshal of the anniversary parade. Martin is proud to follow in his father’s footsteps and hopes the parade will unite the Polish community of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Read more in our article Martin Rybak Named Grand Marshal of the 90th Pulaski Day Parade. The parade will march up Fifth Avenue on Sunday, October 3, 2027.
