Here’s a question that most of us have probably never thought about before: what happens to all the thousands of pounds of food leftover at Super Bowl stadiums?
Well, as it turns out, once the game is over and the fans have all left, that food is usually just dumped into the garbage.
However, following the conclusion of this year’s Super Bowl LIV, a group of passionate volunteers made sure all of that uneaten food wasn’t simply wasted again, and donated the tasty leftovers to local shelters.
More than 30,000 pounds of food was left uneaten at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium after Sunday’s game.
According to ESPN , volunteers with Food Rescue US partnered with Centerplate and NFL Green, and spent Monday through Thursday collecting that food, packaging it, and delivering it to five local shelters where it fed tens of thousands of hungry people.
Beef tenderloins, barbecue chicken, wings, ribs and charcuterie plates are just some of the perfectly good food that volunteers helped to salvage.
Ellen Bowen, the director of Food Rescue US-Miami, said donating this much food is a “full-time job.”
“We just want to help people in need,” she continued. “It’s amazing to see how much food there is that otherwise would have been thrown in the trash that can now feed so many people.”
When all was said and done, Bowen estimated the team had collected enough food to feed around 20,000 people.
Although the NFL has collected nonperishable food at games in the past, Bowen said this is the first major food recovery ever organized after a Super Bowl game.
In an Instagram post , the organization revealed that the 30,000 pounds of food packaged by 37 volunteers and transported in 8 trucks managed to fill “over 1500 pans, plus multiple pallets of produce, lunch kits, bread and more.”
The local social service agency partners expected to receive the donated food are Miami Rescue Mission, Broward Outreach Center, Broward Partnership for the Homeless, Lotus House Shelter and Camillus House.
h/t: ESPN
