[Courtesy of Second Harvest's Facebook] 

Second Harvest Preparing to Tackle Hunger at Super Bowl LIX

07:00 January 29, 2025
By: Nadir Benslimane

Second Harvest Teaming Up with Feeding America's Food Rescue Challenge

With the Super Bowl LIX taking place on February 9, several nonprofit organizations, such as Feeding America, Second Harvest, and their partners have collaborated with the Super Bowl LIX Host Committee's Sustainability Committee to address food insecurity throughout Greater 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 President & CEO of Feeding America
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot in a press release. "As so many of us will find inspiration by the action on the football field, it's the action happening off the fieldwhen we work together to end hungerthat 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."

[Dave Adamson, Unsplash]


Second Harvest's Progress on Tackling Hunger

Second Harvest, in addition to its food recovery efforts, has partnered with the NFL Inspire Social Justice Initiative to promote its Makin' Groceries Mobile Market at the Sachez Center in the Lower 9th Ward, located at 1616 Fats Domino Ave. The initiative provided low-cost groceries to underserved communities and donated 600 backpacks filled with food to students at the Dr. King Charter School.

Additionally, Second Harvest teamed up with the NFL Host Committee to host a volunteer food packing celebration at the Treme Recreation Center, located at 900 N. Villere St.

During the game on Sunday February 9, Second Harvest will be providing volunteers for the Super Bowl LIX 50/50 raffle at the Caesar's Superdome with proceeds going towards Second Harvest to provide meals throughout 23 parishes from the Mississippi border to the Texas state line.

To learn more about Second Harvest and their mission, visit their official website or get updates from their Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.


What's the Game Plan?

With several private parties and events leading up to the big game sponsored by the NFL and other organizations, Second Harvest has partnered with hundreds of pantries and meal programs to collect and distribute unopened drinks and trays of food to communities in need. These food recovery efforts would be conducted most prominently in events that feature buffets or banquets serving 100 or more people so Second Harvest and its volunteers can recover as much as they can. These food recovery efforts by Second Harvest are a part of an initiative from Feeding America's Food Rescue Challenge to recover an additional one billion pounds of food and make sure that it does not end up as waste.

"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 in a press release. "This untouched, unopened food would simply end up in our area's landfills, which would be a missed opportunity in a community in which hundreds of thousands aren't sure where their next meal is coming from."

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