Sports
How the Miami GP's mountainous food surplus feeds the city and fights climate change
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — A Formula One grand prix weekend is like a Super Bowl-caliber event in Miami – especially when it comes to the food.
Extravagant hospitality packages are created, award-winning chefs cater 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 walked through the Hard Rock Stadium campus. Roughly 242,000 people attended the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, but the chefs’ teams for the restaurants working the event didn’t know quite what to expect when preparing the meals across the campus.
Thousands of pounds of food are made over the three-day weekend, ranging from simple ingredients like common produce to filet mignon. By the end of the 2022 weekend, approximately 90,000 pounds of food were left over, which equates to roughly 75,000 meals — a significant amount of food that needed to be rescued.
Food insecurity is rising in the United States, particularly in South Florida. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion defines the term as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” Across Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties, nonprofit 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 F1’s food surplus situation in Miami. The nonprofit has volunteers who pick up the viable remaining food (such as food not used for buffets) and deliver the surplus to local agencies, like homeless shelters and food pantries. But if the food weren’t rescued, it likely would end up in landfills. The South Florida office has worked with Hard Rock Stadium for several years, delivering food surplus from college and professional football games to local organizations.
When F1 came to town, it was natural for the Food Rescue US – South Florida branch to collaborate with Hard Rock Stadium again.
“I remember them calling me saying, ‘So Ellen, we just got F1,’” said Ellen Bowen, the site director. “‘Think of the Super Bowl times three.’”
How it works
The food rescue mission doesn’t commence until after the grand prix weekend is over.
During the race’s first year, the volunteers spent three days gathering and delivering food surplus, 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 veggies and pastries. “It was staggering,” Bowen said. “It took us three days to do it with about a total of 125 volunteers that were working in basically four-hour shifts.”
It’s impossible to save 100 percent of the extra food — for instance, media catering is buffet-style. But rescuing 90,000 pounds in year one requires significant effort, not just by providing meals but also by keeping the food out of the landfill.
“Miami and Broward County are running out of landfill space. The incinerators that we’ve used, it burned down last year. So we’re as an organization, and I think, as a county, really trying to find a way to reduce the actual waste,” Bowen said, adding. “The organizations we feed, they’re homeless shelters, they’re community-based organizations that service underserved communities, whether it’s through a church or community center, we put food into community refrigerators. So all of this food that we rescue goes to people that maybe never had a filet mignon before, or certainly people that really need this good, healthy, nutritious food.”
Year two involved fewer volunteers as the existing kitchen staff brought in more employees to help store the food, leaving Food Rescue US – South Florida to coordinate the transportation. With one grand prix weekend under their belts, the kitchen crews 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 year two resulted in 60,000 pounds of food, which is 50,000 meals; in 2024, the number totaled 65,000 pounds, roughly 55,000 meals. (Miami GP managing partner Tom Garfinkel estimated the 2024 race this past weekend brought in 275,000 fans.) According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a meal is approximately 1.2 pounds, so you divide the weight of the food by 1.2 to determine an estimate of its number of meals.
Over the years, the process essentially has remained the same (but was a day shorter this year) — prepared food on day one, leftover prepared food, salads and produce, as well as unused items like plates and cups on day two, and condiments and bread on day three. In 2024, the operation took only two days and seven trucks to the six different Miami-Dade and Broward Counties shelters. Bowen said: “If there is a giant can of tomato sauce that they didn’t use, like bulk quantities, we take that also because if you think about it, what happens once (the) grand prix is gone, that site shuts down, and they don’t want to be storing things that might possibly go past expiration.”
Food Rescue US – South Florida does the same during football season, like when the Dolphins don’t have a home game for two weeks. Bowen said: “It’s very much dependent on, can they use it soon? Can they freeze it and then use it? Or is it something that they just don’t anticipate using in enough of the near future to hold on to?”
The food requirements
They can’t rescue all of the food on the campus, either.
Food Rescue US won’t accept hot food, Bowen said. It needs to be refrigerated and cooled down, so they don’t begin their F1 operations until the Monday after the race weekend. The food also must be stored in sealed containers and labeled with the food item and the date it was packed.
However, the organization and chefs also adhere to other guidelines, like ServSafe (which provides alcohol and food safety training) and the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. This federal law essentially “allows for any food donated in good faith to be free of liability,” Bowen said.
When it comes to who receives the food surplus first, Bowen says she will “try and support the homeless shelters first because they have the capacity to store and freeze trays and trays and trays of food.” She primarily works with four larger shelters, all of which can reheat the food and safely handle large quantities of food.
The remaining food will be divided among smaller food pantries, which typically don’t have full kitchens like homeless shelters or the ability to reheat the food. They’ll often receive produce and nonperishables because these are “a little more shelf stable and can just be distributed as groceries.”
A look at the bigger picture
Food insecurity continues to be a worldwide problem, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. In Florida, there is limited affordable housing and prices for gas and groceries continue to rise, Bowen said.
“I think people that identify as food insecure now are maybe people that never identified as food insecure pre-COVID,” she added. “The statistics are staggering. Forty percent of all food is wasted. Yet I know in the state of Florida, one in 10 report going to bed hungry, and out of that, one in five are children. So we’re not doing a really good job of feeding our own population, and part of that is feeding them nutritious food, too.”
Thus, Food Rescue US – South Florida focuses on bringing the food surplus to underserved communities, specifically food deserts. These areas lack or have limited access to healthy and affordable foods. Bowen said, “They’re shopping at the local corner bodega. They don’t have a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods in their backyard. They have a low-end supermarket or a bodega where they shop, and many of them that they’re on assistance, have to stretch those dollars.”
Miami neighborhoods categorized as pockets of food deserts include Little Haiti, Little Havana, Liberty City, Overtown, and Miami Gardens, where Hard Rock Stadium is located and where the grand prix is held.
Rescuing food surplus not only helps feed underserved communities. It also helps lessen the amount of food waste in the landfills, ultimately dampening the long-term effects of climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined food waste significantly contributes to climate change. According to a recent report on quantifying methane emissions at U.S. landfills, the researchers found “an estimated 58 percent of the fugitive methane emissions (those released to the atmosphere) from municipal solid waste landfills are from landfilled food waste.” When organic waste (which includes food waste) breaks down, this turns into methane, which NASA has labeled as “a powerful greenhouse gas” that “is the second-largest contributor to climate 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 impact on the climate, the evidence suggested from the EPA’s research.
F1 continues to say sustainability is a high priority for the sport, striving to become net zero carbon by 2030. Last month, it released its Impact Report, reporting that it reduced its carbon footprint by 13 percent between 2018 and 2022. Working with food banks and other charities is a common practice for most F1 tracks, including the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which donates rescued food surplus to help local communities.
“Whatever little bit we can do, and anyone can do,” Bowen said, “will contribute to actually reversing climate change by keeping food out of the landfills.”
Top photos: Ellen Bowen/Food Rescue US-South Florida
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ATLANTA — The FBI and Atlanta Police Department are getting ready for a massive security operation ahead of the World Cup semifinals between England and Argentina at Atlanta Stadium.
Both agencies have used drones to search for potential threats on the ground and in the sky. The FBI is enforcing the Federal Aviation Administration’s Temporary Flight Restrictions around the venue.
The FBI has confiscated more than 600 drones nationwide since the World Cup began. Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office Marlo Graham said 86 of those drones were seized in Atlanta.
Graham said the FBI uses a “mechanism” that allows agents to see unauthorized drones in restricted airspace. Agents then work to mitigate the threat posed by unknown drones.
“We’ve been able to safely land drones that have been unauthorized in the flight restricted area,” Graham said.
The FBI has confiscated more than 600 drones at World Cup events since the tournament started. (FBI Atlanta)
While the FBI treats every drone as a potential threat, Graham said the threat level can increase depending on the size of the drone and how close it gets to the stadium.
“Obviously, the closer to the venue, the larger the crowd. We are fortunate here in Atlanta that we have a closed dome stadium,” Graham said. “We don’t want the game to be impacted because a hobbyist couldn’t control their drone, and it lands right when one of our star players was getting ready to score a goal.”
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The Atlanta Police Department’s Drone Unit has helped the FBI track down people suspected of flying in restricted zones.
Sgt. Kindu Franklin said most of the people caught flying drones around World Cup venues are hobbyists with no intent to harm the crowd of soccer fans below.
“In some cases, they just recently bought a drone just for FIFA to get some of the cool footage that they want to put up on their social media,” Franklin said. “There are different ways that you can weaponize these drones. So, we’re operating in a proactive manner.”
The Atlanta Police Department’s drone mission at the World Cup focuses on surveillance. (FOX)
The Atlanta Police Department’s drone mission is focused on surveillance. Officers are looking for potential threats, traffic issues and people the FBI suspects are flying drones illegally.
“So, what we want to do is give our command staff a view that they can’t get from the ground,” Sgt. James Cunningham with APD’s Drone Unit said.
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Cunningham’s unit can launch drones remotely from handheld controllers. Other drones are launched from docking stations strategically placed across the city, and officers control them from the back of an SUV using a computer and a PlayStation controller.
The Atlanta Police Department launches some drones from docks strategically placed across the city. They are controlled by a computer and a PlayStation controller. (Fox News)
The drone docks are used year-round to help the police get an aerial view of emergency situations before officers arrive. The computer shows the drone pilot where all the police body cameras and vehicles are in the area, allowing them to communicate better with officers on the ground.
For the World Cup, the drone docks let the department have more eyes in the sky and respond to emergencies faster.
“It’s going to cut down time. We’re going to get there quick. And then you’re going to get an aerial perspective of what you can’t see on the ground,” Cunningham said.
The Atlanta Police Department launches some drones from docks to get more eyes in the sky and respond to emergencies faster. (Fox News)
Cunningham said the drone unit has completed more than 1,400 flights and logged more than 550 flight hours since the beginning of June.
“Some people haven’t even done that in years or haven’t even reached those numbers in the life of their drone unit,” Cunningham said.
“We train for the environment. We live here, so we know what to expect,” Anais Paredes, an APD drone pilot, said.
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The FBI is asking that hobbyist drone pilots know the Temporary Flight Restrictions in their area before taking off.
There is a one-mile restriction around World Cup stadiums on non-match days, and a three-mile restriction on game day.
LAS VEGAS — From the time Austin Reaves joined the Lakers in 2021 as an undrafted prospect, his basketball life centered around playing with a savant in LeBron James.
That no longer will be the case.
Reaves re-signed with the Lakers on a four-year, $180-million deal, but James decided to move on as he prepares to play an unprecedented 24th season.
Reaves was stunned when he heard about James’ decision while playing golf in Lake Tahoe. Nearly two weeks later, Reaves says he still is trying to process the development.
“I kind of was thinking about it last night when I got here,” Reaves said Monday in his first news conference since re-signing. “Starting the season without him being on the team is going to be different for me. He’s kind of all I’ve ever known. Just him being around, joking around, acting like he’s 15. But that’s his decision and like I said in Tahoe, anytime I’ve talked about it, I got nothing but love and respect for him and yeah, let’s play some golf soon.”
The contract Reaves signed was the richest in NBA history for an undrafted player. At 28 and entering his sixth season, Reaves wanted to stay in L.A.
“I wanted to be a Laker the whole time. We had that period from when the season ended until the first [of July] to get something done and we figured it out before then,” he said. “My heart was in L.A. the whole time.”
Reaves will become one of the de facto leaders of the Lakers along with Luka Doncic. The two once again will be one of the most dynamic backcourts in the NBA.
“Obviously my relationship with the guys that were on the team last year,” Reaves said of why he wanted to stay. “And then Luka. I mean, he’s one of my best friends on this planet. Talk to him almost every single day. He sends me videos of his golf swing and asks me what he can do to get better and I tell him I’m not a coach.”
The Lakers have overhauled the roster: All the players who started alongside Reaves in the playoffs last spring are gone. With the signing of former Brooklyn Nets forward Ziaire Williams on Monday, the Lakers have eight new players, all of them arriving either via trades, free agency or the draft.
“They’re good,” Reaves said of the moves. “Obviously, I’ve been with the guys that are leaving for a couple years and with Bron for five years and I hate to see guys like that go. But the pieces that are coming in, I’m very excited about and I’m happy to get started today and see where it goes.”
Walker Kessler dunks during a game between the Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers on March 23.
(Rob Gray / Associated Press)
One of those new players is Walker Kessler, a 7-foot-2 center the Lakers felt fit best around Doncic and Reaves because he’s a lob threat, rim-protector and good defender and is developing his three-point shooting.
The Lakers got him from the Utah Jazz in a trade and then signed him to a four-year, $130-million contract. The Lakers sent out two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033) and two first-round pick swaps (2028, 2030).
Kessler, who played only five games last season after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, is aware the Lakers paid a big price to get him.
“It definitely makes you feel a certain way when you know an organization believes in you,” Kessler said Monday in his introduction. “And I think what they’ve invested, they’re showing that belief in a monetary value, not just with money, but like you said, assets. And for me, I’m somebody that if I know that they have that belief in me, I’m gonna run through a brick wall for them. That’s just how I’ve been wired my whole life and it definitely makes it a lot easier to go out there and compete for a team.”
Power forward Sandro Mamukelashvili could become a fan favorite, in part because of the tattoo he has on his lower left leg — a No. 24 in honor of Kobe Bryant.
Mamukelashvili, who signed a four-year, $52-million deal, averaged 11.2 points last season with the Toronto Raptors and shot 52.3% from the field, including 38.9% from three-point range.
“I got a Mamba Mentality tattoo. I just love his mindset,” Mamukelashvili said. “Growing up, I used to always say, “Mah-moo Mentality!’ So, I know it’s a little far from each other. But we are getting closer.”
When guard Collin Sexton, another new Laker, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018, James left and signed with the Lakers. When Sexton signed a two-year, $19-million deal with the Lakers this month, James left again.
Sexton could only laugh about missing out on playing with James.
“He’s just leaving every time I arrive,” Sexton said, laughing. “That’s what it is. No, but one of the other coaches made the same joke yesterday. It’s cool, I know. I’ve always wanted to team up with him for sure, but it’s definitely cool knowing him and just having normal conversations and stuff, so that’s cool.”
Sexton averaged 15.4 points and shot 48.5% last season with Chicago and Charlotte. He’s ready for whatever role coach JJ Redick and the Lakers want for him.
“They believe in me,” he said. “And I just feel like at the end of the day, whenever a coach believes in you and like he said, he’s going to be hard on me and yelling and screaming at me. So, I like that. I think that’s what gets the best from me.”
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WWE will swing for the fences for the second straight year when it hosts one of its major premium live events of the year at a Major League Baseball ballpark.
The company announced on Monday that Survivor Series: WarGames will take place at Daikin Park in Houston – the home of the Astros – on Saturday, Nov. 28. It follows up the success of last year’s Survivor Series: WarGames event, which took place at Petco Park in San Diego – the home of the Padres.
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Roman Reigns lands a Superman Punch on Brock Lesnar during Survivor Series at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif., on Nov. 29, 2025. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
“Houston is the perfect host city to celebrate this milestone chapter in Survivor Series’ storied history, and we look forward to partnering with Houston First and the Houston Astros to deliver an unforgettable event,” WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque said in a news release.
WarGames is a highly anticipated match, which has taken place yearly among wrestlers on the WWE roster since 2022. The premium live event has also seen some dramatic returns.
Stephanie Vaquer enters the ring during Survivor Series at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
In 2023, CM Punk came back to WWE at the end of the show and shocked the entire sports world. Randy Orton also made his in-ring return during the match. Last year, a mystery attacker interrupted the WarGames match and gave the win to The Vision and company.
It’s unclear what is in the cards right now for the 40th edition of the event.
“We are proud to be able to help bring one of the world’s premier entertainment brands to Houston for what promises to be an unforgettable holiday weekend,” said Michael Heckman, President and CEO of Houston First, which partnered with WWE to bring the event back to Houston.
Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio celebrate their win during Survivor Series at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
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“Hosting WWE Survivor Series will bring thousands of passionate fans to our city and generate a significant economic impact for community. Houston has earned a reputation for delivering world-class entertainment events, and we look forward to welcoming the WWE Universe to our destination.”
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