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
FIFA announced an affordable admission pricing tier for every nation that’s qualified for the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The supporter entry tier will make tickets available at a fixed price of $60 for every match, including the final, for each nation’s participating members associations.
The new tier comes after supporters’ groups from Europe called out FIFA on the dynamic pricing of tickets, which changes the value based on the popularity of the teams playing in each match.
“In total, 50% of each PMA allocation will fall within the most affordable range, namely supporter value tier (40%) and the supporter entry tier (10%),” FIFA said in a statement on Tuesday. “The remaining allocation is split evenly between the supporter standard tier and the supporter premier tier.”
FIFA will also waive the administrative fees for fans who secure participating member association tickets. But if their teams do not advance, they can seek refunds.
Tickets sales were rolled out by FIFA in phases, with a third of the tournament’s inventory claimed during the first two phases. The third phase started on Dec. 11 and will go through to Jan. 13. During this period, fans have the opportunity to allocate tickets for a match based on a random selection draw.
Before the new tier was introduced, the cheapest ticket for the World Cup final in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey would cost fans more than $4,000. The high prices raised concerns among European supporters.
“The prices set for the 2026 World Cup are scandalous, a step too far for many supporters who passionately and loyally follow their national sides at home and abroad,” the FSA, an organization of supporters for England and Wales, said in a statement posted on its website on Dec. 12. “Everything we feared about the direction in which FIFA wants to take the game was confirmed — Gianni Infantino only sees supporter loyalty as something to be exploited for profit.”
FIFA previously stated it adopted the variable pricing because it was common practice for major North America sporting events.
“What FIFA is doing is adapting to the domestic market,” a FIFA official said in the conference call. “It’s a reality in the U.S. and Canada that events are being priced as per the demand that is coming in for that event.”
A FIFA official told reporters before the first tickets went on sale that world soccer’s governing body expects to make more than $3 billion from hospitality and tickets sales and is confident the tournament will break the all-time World Cup attendance record set in 1994, the last time the men’s competition was held in the U.S.
That 1994 World Cup featured just 24 teams and 52 matches. The 2026 tournament will be twice as large, with 48 teams and 104 games.
FIFA said it received 20 million requests during the random selection draw sales.
SoFi Stadium will host eight matches, beginning with the U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12. The Americans will finish group play in Inglewood on June 25, playing the winner of a March playoff involving Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey and Romania. Two Group G matches — Iran versus New Zealand on June 15 and Iran-Belgium on June 21 — also will be played in SoFi, sandwiched around a Group B match between Switzerland and the winner of another European playoff, this one featuring Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy and Northern Ireland.
The teams for the three knockout-stage games to be played at SoFi Stadium — round-of-32 games on June 28 and July 2 and a quarterfinal on July 10 — haven’t been determined, but the possibilities include Mexico, South Korea, Canada, Spain, Austria and Algeria.
Staff writer Kevin Baxter contributed to this report.
Sports
Titans star Jeffery Simmons calls burglars ‘f—ing cowards’ after home break-in during game vs 49ers
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Tennessee Titans star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons ripped into those who burglarized his home while he played against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
There were “at least six suspects” who burglarized Simmons’ Nashville home, which came shortly after 7 p.m., the Metro Nashville Police Department told ESPN.
That was the exact time frame the Titans were facing the 49ers in the Bay Area.
Jeffery Simmons of the Tennessee Titans looks on during halftime against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Nissan Stadium on Nov. 30, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jeff Dean/Getty Images)
“What if any of my family members was in my house??” Simmons wrote on social media while showing security camera footage of the burglars trying to enter his home. “All that materialistic s—- you can have but this is crazy!”
Simmons also called the burglars “f—ing cowards,” though he was complimentary of the Metro Nashville PD.
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“I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the Metro Nashville Police Department and the Titans’ security team for their professionalism and swift response,” Simmons said in a statement. “Their dedication to ensuring the safety of our entire Nashville community does not go unnoticed. I remain thankful for God’s protection and grace.”
The suspects were said to have gained entry to Simmons’ home “after smashing out window glass,” while “multiple items were taken” in the process.
It’s unclear exactly what was taken from Simmons’ home.
Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons (98) reacts after sacking Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (not pictured) during the fourth quarter at Huntington Bank Field on Dec. 7, 2025. (Scott Galvin/Imagn Images)
Meanwhile, Simmons was able to find the end zone despite the loss to the 49ers, so a good personal performance came to a screeching halt once he found out the news.
But unfortunately, Simmons isn’t the only NFL star who has been burglarized while playing a game.
Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce had it happen last season, as did Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. All of those burglaries were in connection with a South American theft group that was specifically targeting NFL and NBA players.
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Cleveland Browns rookie Shedeur Sanders also saw $200,000 worth of property taken from his residence while they were playing the Baltimore Ravens earlier this season.
The Titans’ security team said it is “actively working” with local police to recover the stolen items.
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MONDAY’S RESULTS
BOYS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 43, Valley Oaks CES 25
Arleta 70, Monroe 59
Bell 52, South East 34
Bravo 83, View Park 82
CALS Early College 36, Magnolia Science Academy 20
Contreras 86, Belmont 15
Downtown Magnets 65, Lincoln 61
East College Prep 51, Brio College Prep 38
East Valley 46, Van Nuys 31
Fulton 63, Lakeview Charter 20
Garfield 48, South Gate 34
Granada Hills Kennedy 68, Reseda 23
LA Roosevelt 60, Legacy 47
Locke 59, Animo Watts 56
Orthopaedic 69, Annenberg 44
RFK Community 58, Mendez 49
Sun Valley Poly73, North Hollywood 58
Triumph Charter 69, LA Marshall 59
Vaughn 73, Panorama 58
SOUTHERN SECTION
ACE 82, PAL Academy 54
Alta Loma 48, Diamond Ranch 41
Anaheim 70, Magnolia 27
Arroyo 71, El Monte 28
Bell Gardens 68, Glenn 39
Bonita 60, San Dimas 56
Chaparral 76, California 71
Colton 83, Desert Hot Springs 67
Costa Mesa 75, Savanna 68
Crossroads Christian 39, Grove School 28
Desert Christian 67, Lancaster Baptist 54
Eastside 71, Quartz Hill 64
El Rancho 66, Duarte 30
Elsinore 58, Great Oak 55
Gabrielino 51, Rosemead 46
Highland 53, Antelope Valley 34
Hillcrest 68, Indian Springs 61
Knight 86, Lancaster 32
Lakeside 54, Patriot 42
Liberty 67, Beaumont 64
Magnolia Science Academy 55, Legacy College Prep 31
Malibu 69, Nordhoff 34
Mary Star of the Sea 64, Chadwick 60
Mesa Grande Academy 85, RSCSM 30
Mesrobian 47, New Covenant Academy 44
Montclair 84, Rim of the World 45
Moreno Valley 53, Vista del Lago 44
Ontario 68, La Sierra 27
Orange 59, Pasadena Marshall 37
Paloma Valley 56, San Jacinto 48
Pasadena 80, Burbank 53
Placentia Valencia 60, Santa Ana 32
Perris 81, Heritage 45
Redlands 46, Banning 41
Rialto 65, Norco 64
Riverside King 57, Riverside Poly 55
Santa Maria 86, Valley Christian Academy 69
Serrano 48, Arroyo Valley 37
Sherman Indian 59, California Lutheran 53
Summit 73, Yucaipa 56
Thousand Oaks 72, Simi Valley 40
Valley Torah 100, St. Monica Academy 68
Valley View 75, Jurupa Valley 45
Vasquez 98, PACS 40
Viewpoint 60, Hillcrest Christian 37
Westlake 51, Oak Park 37
Whitney 69, Godinez 63
Woodbridge 69, El Toro 48
INTERSECTIONAL
Compton 74, Crenshaw 53
Gahr 76, Rancho Dominguez 52
Marquez 65, Whittier 30
New Roads 47, Animo Venice 28
San Gabriel 66, Sotomayor 39
GIRLS
CITY SECTION
Animo Robinson 37, Smidt Tech 33
Animo Watts 55, Locke 29
Brio College Prep 24, East College Prep 20
Contreras 42, Belmont 4
Crenshaw 41, Torres 16
Granada Hills Kennedy 67, Reseda 15
Grant 64, Chavez 3
Hollywood 44, Roybal 12
Northridge Academy 58, East Valley 9
Orthopaedic 25, Annenberg 14
RFK Community 27, Mendez 18
Sherman Oaks CES 75, Fulton 7
South East 35, Bell 27
Verdugo Hills 56, Eagle Rock 31
SOUTHERN SECTION
Aliso Niguel 60, Edison 23
Arroyo 34, El Monte 25
Arroyo Valley 42, San Gorgonio 29
Baldwin Park 60, La Puente 15
Bonita 48, San Dimas 39
Burbank 64, Pasadena 40
Carter 77, Adelanto 54
Chino 58, Ayala 38
Citrus Valley 54, Liberty 52
Coachella Valley 45, Palo Verde Valley 36
Covina 49, Sierra Vista 40
Desert Christian 46, Lancaster Baptist 27
Don Lugo 53, Bloomington 16
Eastside 56, Quartz Hill 24
El Modena 40, Irvine University 15
El Segundo 60, Montebello 18
Flintridge Sacred Heart 50, Muir 43
Fontana 50, Patriot 42
Foothill Tech 35, Santa Barbara 23
Gabrielino 40, Rosemead 27
Garden Grove 53, Garden Grove Pacifica 17
Glenn 36, Firebaugh 11
Heritage 56, Corona 38
Highland 60, Antelope Valley 26
Hillcrest 61, Valley View 37
Irvine 36, Tustin 34
Jurupa Valley 47, Norco 19
Laguna Beach 42, Savanna 39
Lancaster 55, Knight 22
Loma Linda Academy 42, Desert Chapel 13
Los Altos 60, Mayfair 23
Los Amigos 43, Artesia 25
Mesa Grande Academy 80, River Springs Charter 10
Monrovia 39, Ramona Convent 31
Newbury Park 55, Santa Paula 26
Nordhoff 54, Cate 31
Paramount 58, Lakewood 40
Redlands 35, Banning 19
Royal 47, Channel Islands 39
San Jacinto Valley Academy 34, Santa Rosa Academy 26
Santa Maria 61, Valley Christian Academy 37
Schurr 45, California 37
Segerstrom 49, Long Beach Wilson 46
Silver Valley 55, Sultana 30
Southlands Christian 49, Bassett 10
Temple City 35, San Gabriel 27
Twentynine Palms 55, Cathedral City 13
Vasquez 45, Palmdale Academy Charter 6
Vista Murrieta 40, Beaumont 37
Western Christian 64, Workman 14
West Torrance 74, Torrance 36
Whittier Christian 68, NOVA Academy 13
Wiseburn-Da Vinci 66, South Torrance 60
Woodbridge 66, Katella 37
Yucaipa 51, Summit 46
YULA 64, ISLA 26
INTERSECTIONAL
Compton Centennial 43, Rancho Dominguez 16
Dominguez 50, LA Jordan 8
LACES 62, Inglewood 35
Warner 40, Anza Hamilton 33
Westchester 53, Leuzinger 52
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