I just returned from a research trip to New York. In addition to visiting a food pantry and speaking with the former USDA coordinator of food recovery, I observed more stadium food recovery.
Last summer, I went to a Mets game to witness Shea Stadium food donation (baseball). There, I tagged along with a concessions manager as he collected hot dogs, burgers, pretzels, chicken and fries after the game was rained out.
This weekend, I drove to Giants Stadium with Reverend Mary Thompson, the director of the collecting food pantry, We Care, the Bronx. We arrived at the stadium after the Giants game (football) had ended and drove into the bowels of arena. There, we waited as an ARAMARK employee collected the excess food from concession stands.
At about 5:45 pm, the worker pulled up in his cart with the haul: 11 boxes of hot dogs, sausages, burgers and pretzels. Still, that was less than usual for a football game at Giants Stadium, said Syd Mandelbaum, director of Rock and Wrap it Up!, the non-profit that oversees food recovery at many U.S. venues.
Mandelbaum said that Giants Stadium collection can range from 10 to 30 boxes, or 150 to 500 pounds of food. Perhaps the light haul was a result of the Giants getting crushed, which could have caused fans to eat away their sorrow (Note: WastedFood.com does not recommend this practice).
The collected food was enough to ensure that Thompson didn’t have to cook much the next day. She said she planned to serve a modified franks ‘n beans, which the soup kitchen’s clients love. We Care is a program of the New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ located in the Soundview section of the Bronx.
2 Comments
Jonathan, I read your thoughtful article on culinate.com and applaud your efforts to bring our attention to wasted food. My friend worked a brief stint at CostCo and was appalled by the wasted food. They would put dozens of pizzas in the break room a couple times a week and the employees couldn’t finish them all by the end of the night. Literally dozens of whole pizzas would be thrown out because they didn’t want the employees stealing food. He couldn’t believe that they’d rather throw the good (at least not rotten) food in the trash than find some way to get it to hungry people. He often wondered if there was a business opportunity in that. I’m so glad to see that people go around to the concession stands at ballparks to collect food. Good luck with your book, and I’ll be sure to come back to your site. Another site you may want to submit an article to might be ethicurean.com. I don’t know if you are familiar with them, but it seems right up their alley. Keep up the good work!
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