Cause Cooking – Waste Management

The Cause: Waste Not
The Cook: M Catering
The Location: Waste Management Phoenix Open

In our Cause Cooking feature, we love featuring chefs and restauranteurs that are doing great things within our community. One of these great organizations is M Catering. Last year, M Catering by Michael’s served 55,000+ people at the Waste Management Open, totaling roughly 85,000 pounds of food. But what happens to the tons of perfectly prepared food left over when the guests go home? Thanks to a longstanding partnership between M Catering and Waste Not, the excess perishable food is being put to good use.

M Catering, The Thunderbirds, and Waste Not have worked together on this initiative for years, and in 2014 alone, 8,800 pounds of excess food was donated to the cause. (This equates to roughly $15,000 donated to Waste Not in excess food based on the organization’s $1.73/lb. measurement).

Starting today and running through Sunday, Waste Not trucks head to M Catering’s (M Culinary Concepts) facility each day to rescue the excess food from the previous day at the WM Open. Then, the food is immediately delivered to Waste Not’s network of agencies to feed those who need it the most.

In addition the NFL Environmental Program Food Recovery Project designated Waste Not as the food recovery partner for all Super Bowl XLIX events. Waste Not is collecting excess food from various Super Bowl events this week, and will collect post-game at the stadium next Monday and Tuesday. They already received 500 pounds of food from the Pro Bowl.

We love to hear great stories like this! So if you’re out at either or both of these incredible events this weekend, know what good is taking place and how it’s positively effecting other peoples lives.

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