INDIANAPOLIS -
A crowd of 150,000 people expected for the Super Bowl means a lot of meals, and a lot of leftovers. But there's a plan in place to make sure none of that food goes to waste.
In an average week, Indianapolis restaurants and grocery stores produce 25-to-30,000 pounds of left over food. Next week, with all those visitors and all the Super Bowl parties, that number is expected to triple to 90,000 pounds of uneaten food.
Second Helpings, which specializes in repurposing that food, is prepared with a special Super Bowl plan. They have three new refrigerators and freezers, six new steam ovens and three massive cooking pots. All of this was purchased to deal with the anticipated load of food.
They will take the leftover wheels of brie and pieces of filet and make a fancy feast, and provide it for those less fortunate. All of Second Helpings food is donated to area homeless shelters and childcare facilities around Indianapolis.
"We prepare and, in some cases, re-prepare the meals," says Nora Spitznogle of Second Helpings, "so it might turn into a real fancy casserole or it might be that the kids at Dayspring are getting fancy kabobs and skewers and things like that the next day."
The key is none of the food, for example from the Taste of the NFL, will be thrown out. Whatever isn't plated and consumed will be put to good use.
One local shelter is prepared to do a little less cooking next week, thanks to Super Bowl 46.
Wheeler Mission, which serves men, women and children around 1000 meals every day will have a lot of help in the days before and after the Super Bowl.
"When we get these large parties, especially around the 500 or Final Four, we get huge donations and a lot of the food is atypical from what we normally serve," says Steve Kerr of Wheeler Mission. "Though we do try to serve very balanced meals, we seldom serve steak or lobster, which we may see this coming few weeks."
