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Second Harvest Teams Up with Feeding America’s Food Rescue Challenge at Super Bowl LIX

NEW ORLEANSSecond Harvest Food Bank is leading food recovery efforts following events leading up to the big game to ensure perfectly good food makes it to the tables of community members experiencing food insecurity. As part of the Super Bowl LIX Host Committee’s Sustainability Committee, the nonprofit will deploy staff and volunteers to recover excess food and drink items.

In addition to NFL-sponsored events, many organizations will host private parties, events, etc. leading up to the big game. Second Harvest partners with hundreds of pantries and meal programs to address food insecurity in local communities. Following the events around Super Bowl, the nonprofit will collect unopened drinks and trays of food and deliver these items to its network of partners throughout the Greater New Orleans area.

Second Harvest is committed to rescuing as much food as possible from activities related to the game and events leading up to it. The nonprofit will conduct food rescue for banquet/buffet style events for 100 or more people.

“We anticipate that we will recover enough food from events during the week leading up to and after Super Bowl LIX to provide thousands of meals to people experiencing food insecurity in South Louisiana,” said Second Harvest President & CEO Natalie Jayroe. “This untouched, unopened food would simply end up in our area landfills, which would a missed opportunity in a community in which hundreds of thousands aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from.”

As a member of the Feeding America network, Second Harvest is leveraging its food recovery efforts around Super Bowl LIX as a part of Feeding America’s Food Rescue Challenge, an ambitious new effort to rescue an additional 1 billion pounds of food and which give perfectly good food a second chance.

As the country’s largest food rescue organization, Feeding America rescues surplus food from grocery stores, food manufacturers and farms and distributes it through nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and 60,000 agency partners, food pantries and meal programs, including many right here in New Orleans.

“The United States produces over 90 billion pounds of surplus food each year while tens of millions of people are facing hunger,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, President & CEO of Feeding America. “As so many of us will find inspiration by the action on the football field, it’s the action happening off the field – when we work together to end hunger – that inspires me the most. Feeding America is proud to join Second Harvest in its food rescue efforts during Super Bowl week and invites fans and supporters to join the Food Rescue Challenge to help tackle hunger in your local community.”

During the game on Feb. 9, Second Harvest will provide volunteers for the Super Bowl LIX 50/50 Raffle taking place during the game in Caesar’s Superdome.

Second Harvest has already partnered with the NFL Inspire Change Social Justice Initiative for an activation in the Lower 9th Ward’s Sanchez Center on 1616 Fats Domino Avenue. The activation featured Second Harvest’s Makin’ Groceries Mobile Market which provides low-cost groceries in underserved communities, and a giveaway of 600 backpacks filled with food to students at Dr. King Charter School.

Earlier this month Second Harvest also partnered with the NFL Host Committee to hold a volunteer food packing celebration at the Treme Recreation Center. Over 200 volunteers from organizations that received Impact 59 Grants were in attendance.

About Second Harvest Food Bank

For more than 40 years, Second Harvest Food Bank has led the mission to end hunger in South Louisiana by providing food access, advocacy, education, and disaster response. Second Harvest provides food to more than 500 partners and programs across 23 parishes, from the Mississippi border to the Texas state line. Together, we make up the largest charitable anti-hunger network in the state. With our community’s help, we can make food security a reality for every household in South Louisiana. Second Harvest Food Bank is a ministry of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, a member of Feeding America, and a United Way Partner Agency.

About Feeding America

Feeding America is committed to an America where no one is hungry. We support tens of millions of people who experience food insecurity to get the food and resources they say they need to thrive as part of a nationwide network of food banks, statewide food bank associations, food pantries and meal programs. We also invest in innovative solutions to increase equitable access to nutritious food, advocate for legislation that improves food security and work to address factors that impact food security, such as health, cost of living and employment.

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