25 tons of leftover food each year was dumped into landfills following Boston Bruin hockey games alone. Now, the lasagna and pizza, Italian sausage and panini sandwiches are donated to the Boston Rescue Mission to feed the city’s hungry, and the entire National Hockey League has followed suit.
Syd Mandelbaum began 21 years ago in Long Island, NY funneling donations of “rock star’ quality leftover food directly to a soup kitchen that he helped found in 1987. It was the opening chorus in a great symphony of charity and recycling that became “Rock and Wrap it Up”.
Sid realized that if food was leftover at one venue where rock bands played, it probably meant that food was potentially available at every venue in the United States and elsewhere.
First came MTV and more rock bands, then college cafeterias. Then, in 2002, the Detroit baseball stadium became one of the first to join Sports Wrap, which arranges for the recovery of food from stadiums and arenas. Today, over 60 national sports teams — including the entire National Hockey League — send donations of leftover deli delights.
Since its inception in 1991, Rock and Wrap it Up has collected more than 250 million pounds of food to feed more than 500 million people.
Slightly used personal grooming products like shampoo and toilet paper are also donated by Marriott, Grand Hyatt and Sheraton hotels.
The group even wrote and helped pass legislation, the Federal Food Donation Act, which encourages all federal buildings to feed the poor instead of sending food to the landfill.
WATCH the Making a Difference video from MSNBC…