GARDENS OF MIAMI, Florida — A Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend feels like a Super Bowl-caliber event in Miami, especially when it comes to the food.
Extravagant hospitality packages are created, award-winning chefs take over the weekend to bring the flavor of South Florida to F1, and VIPs flood the paddock. Over the years, the likes of the Williams sisters, David Beckham, Ed Sheeran, Michael Jordan and Paris Hilton have graced the Hard Rock Stadium campus. About 242,000 people attended the first Miami Grand Prix, but restaurant chef teams working the event weren’t sure what to expect when preparing meals on campus.
Thousands of pounds of food are prepared over the three-day weekend, ranging from simple ingredients like common produce to filet mignon. At the end of the 2022 weekend, approximately 90,000 pounds of food remained, which equates to approximately 75,000 meals – a significant amount of food that needed to be salvaged.
Food insecurity is increasing in the United States, particularly in South Florida. THE Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion defines the term as “an economic and social situation at the household level characterized by limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” In Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties, non-profit organization Feeding South Florida found that more than 1.2 million people faced food insecurity on Thanksgiving 2023.
Enter Food Rescue US – the middleman and solution to Miami’s F1 surplus food situation. The nonprofit has volunteers who collect remaining viable food (like unused food for buffets) and deliver the surplus to local agencies, like homeless shelters and food pantries. But if the food wasn’t collected, it would likely end up in landfills. The South Florida office has worked with Hard Rock Stadium for several years, delivering surplus food from college and professional football games to local organizations.
When F1 came to town, it was only natural that Food Rescue US – South Florida would once again partner with Hard Rock Stadium.
“I remember them calling me and saying, ‘So Ellen, we just got F1,'” said Ellen Bowen, the venue’s director. “Think of the Super Bowl times three. »
How it works
The food rescue mission doesn’t begin until after the Grand Prix weekend ends.
During the race’s first year, volunteers spent three days gathering and delivering surplus food, which she described as food that can be sold or served but doesn’t leave the kitchen. In 2022, this ranged from pulled pork to vegetables and pastries. “It was astounding,” Bowen said. “It took us three days to do it with about 125 volunteers working four-hour shifts.”
It is impossible to save 100% of extra food; for example, multimedia catering is buffet style. But saving 90,000 pounds in the first year requires considerable effort, not only to provide meals, but also to keep food from ending up in landfills.
“Miami and Broward County are short on landfill space. The incinerators we used burned down last year. So we are as an organization, and I think, as a county, we are really trying to find a way to reduce actual waste,” Bowen said, adding. “The organizations that we feed are homeless shelters, community organizations that serve underserved communities, whether it’s through a church or a community center, we put food in refrigerators community. So all of this food that we’re collecting is going to people who may have never had filet mignon before, or certainly to people who really need this good, healthy, nutritious food.
The second year required fewer volunteers as the existing kitchen staff recruited more employees to help store the food, leaving Food Rescue US – South Florida to coordinate transportation. With a Grand Prix weekend under their belt, the kitchen teams knew what to expect and the food surplus dropped – but it was “pretty comparable to the Super Bowl in terms of quantity”.
Bowen estimated that the second year yielded 60,000 pounds of food, or 50,000 meals; in 2024, that number rose to 65,000 pounds, or about 55,000 meals. (Miami GP managing partner Tom Garfinkel estimated that the 2024 race last weekend drew 275,000 fans.) According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a meal weighs about 1.2 pounds, so you divide the weight of the food by 1.2 to determine an estimate of its number of meals. In addition to Food Rescue US – South Florida, Miami GP has worked with Flipany for the past two years.
Over the years, the process has remained essentially the same (but was one day shorter this year): prepared meals on the first day, leftover prepared meals, salads and produce, and unused items like plates and cups the second day and the condiments. and bread on the third day. In 2024, the operation took just two days and seven trucks to travel to the six different shelters in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Bowen said: “If there’s a giant can of tomato sauce that they haven’t used, like bulk quantities, we take that as well because if you think about it, what will happen a Once the Grand Prize is gone, this site will close its doors. , and they don’t want to store things that could possibly pass their expiration date.
Food Rescue US – South Florida does the same thing during football season, like when the Dolphins don’t have a home game for two weeks. Bowen said: “A lot depends on, will they be able to use it soon? Can they freeze it then use it? Or is it something they just don’t plan on using in the near future so they can keep it? »
Dietary needs
They also can’t save all the food on campus.
Food Rescue US will not accept hot meals, Bowen said. It needs to be refrigerated and cooled, so they don’t start their F1 operations until the Monday following the race weekend. Food should also be stored in containers that are sealed and labeled with the food and the date it was packaged.
However, the organization and leaders also adhere to other guidelines, such as ServSafe (which provides alcohol and food safety training) and the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. This federal law Essentially, “allows any food given in good faith to be exempt from liability,” Bowen said.
As for who will receive the surplus food first, Bowen says she will “try to support the homeless shelters first because they have the capacity to store and freeze trays and trays of food.” . She primarily works with four larger shelters, all of which can reheat food and safely handle large quantities of food.
The remaining food will be divided among smaller pantries, which typically don’t have full kitchens like homeless shelters or the ability to reheat food. They will often receive non-perishable produce and items because they are “a little more shelf-stable and can just be handed out as groceries.”
A look at the big picture
Food insecurity remains a global problem, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. In Florida, affordable housing is limited and gas and grocery prices continue to rise, Bowen said.
“I think people who identify as food insecure today may be people who never identified as food insecure before COVID,” she added. “The statistics are staggering. Forty percent of all food is wasted. Yet I know that in the state of Florida, one in ten people report going to bed hungry, and of those, one in five is a child. So we’re not good at feeding our own population very well, and part of that is giving them nutritious food as well.
So, Food Rescue US – South Florida focuses on getting surplus food to underserved communities, particularly food deserts. These areas lack or have limited access to healthy, affordable foods. Bowen said: “They shop at the local bodega. They don’t have a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods in their backyard. They have a low-end supermarket or bodega where they shop, and many of them who receive assistance have to spend more money.
Miami neighborhoods classified as pockets of food deserts include Little Haiti, Little Havana, Liberty City, Overtown and Miami Gardens, home to Hard Rock Stadium and where the grand prix takes place.
Saving surplus food not only helps feed underserved communities. It also helps reduce the amount of food waste in landfills, mitigating the long-term effects of climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that food waste contributes significantly to climate change. According to a recent report By quantifying methane emissions in U.S. landfills, researchers found that “approximately 58 percent of fugitive methane emissions (those released into the atmosphere) from municipal solid waste landfills come from landfilled food waste.” When organic waste (including food waste) decomposes, it turns into methane, which NASA has been called a “powerful greenhouse gas” that “is the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2).” Methane also comes from other sources, like fossil fuels and agriculture, but diverting food from landfills can help reduce the climate impact, EPA research suggests.
F1 continues to assert that sustainability is a high priority for the sport, which is striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Last month, the brand published its impact report, stating that it has reduced its carbon footprint by 13% between 2018 and 2022. Working with food banks and other charities is standard practice at most F1 circuits, including the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which donates surplus of food collected to help local communities.
“Anything we can do, and everyone can do it,” Bowen said, “will really help reverse climate change by stopping food from ending up in landfills.”
Top photos: Ellen Bowen/Food Rescue US-South Florida