LOS ANGELES — When Latacha Dennis arrived at the LA Mission on Tuesday morning, she was greeted by fresh corn salsa, empanadas, arugula, spinach, jackfruit, green tomatoes and cartons full of Greek yogurt.
"When I walked in today and saw it all, I was overwhelmed. I was super happy and just grateful," she said.
Dennis is a chef at the LA Mission and received the items thanks to a partnership with the NFL Green team. After the Super Bowl ended on Sunday evening, produce and prepared meals were taken from SoFi Stadium and other NFL-sponsored events around Los Angeles and brought to the LA Mission.
"They sent us maybe like over 2,000 lbs. of food, so it's enough to feed the community for the next couple of days really well. And it is all really high-end food," Dennis said.
The LA Mission received 1,000 lbs. of prepared food, 11,000 lbs. of drinks and 3,000 lbs. of fresh produce. Some of it was served right away, while trays of meatballs, lobster rolls and other perishables were frozen to be reused at another time. The LA Mission's Executive Chef Erik Grant said the partnership between nonprofits and the NFL made up a winning team.
"It allows us to utilize our resources effectively and it allows us to utilize our resources responsibly. So the NFL has been responsible in making sure the food doesn't go to waste," Grant said.
Outside of the kitchen, the NFL Green team also made sure other Super Bowl-related products were put to good use. Items such as fabric, set pieces and furniture, all used to set the stage at various Super Bowl events, were given new life.
Verizon and the NFL hosted a party in downtown LA to celebrate the game over the weekend and art pieces from the setup went to the LA Mission for reuse and plywood was picked up to make garden beds in schools. Extra T-shirts from the weekend were set to become art smocks for painting at a local nonprofit.
One of the largest byproducts of Super Bowl events was carpeting. Over 150,000 lbs. of carpet were used throughout the weekend at the LA Convention Center and at SoFi Stadium.
Jack Groh, the environmental director of the NFL, said a lot of the carpeting will go to local schools.
"We've got a group of environmental charter schools, some will go to Salvation Army. You know, keep in mind that a lot of this carpeting is almost brand new. Walked on for a couple of hours, so much of it is in show room condition."
Groh said the goal is to reuse materials and keep as much waste out of landfills as possible.
"We ended up working with more than two dozen nonprofits in the greater Los Angeles area who are actually part of this recovery program," Groh said.
As one of those nonprofit beneficiaries, Dennis said she was grateful.
"It's a blessing, it was huge that all these amazing donations came from the Super Bowl being in California this year," she said.