Local restaurants team up to benefit Second Harvest

Taste of the NFL, the “Super Bowl Party with a Purpose,” will come to the New Orleans Convention Center Feb. 2, 2013. The annual event – held the night before the Super Bowl – features an auction, entertainment and food prepared by 35 renowned chefs who are paired with NFL players from each NFL city to benefit the local Second Harvest Food Bank and other Feeding America food banks in cities that have an NFL team.
To kick off the event, host chef Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace and Second Harvest executive chef Kevin Faulkner collaborated on a Chicken Cacciatore Cannelloni recipe that they cooked Oct. 1 at Second Harvest as a treat for the approximately 100 children participating in the NFL Youth Education Town (YET), a center run by Boys & Girls Clubs of America on South Broad Street in New Orleans.
Second Harvest regularly serves this site through its year-old Kids Cafe afterschool program that feeds 1,200 children each weekday.
McPhail said he was fascinated to witness how Second Harvest Food Bank’s new community kitchen works to prepare and deliver quality meals following USDA guidelines to those in need. While he deals in volume every day at Commander’s Palace, McPhail was blown away by how the food is cooked, sealed, loaded onto trucks and then delivered.
Taste of the NFL Founder Wayne Kostroski was at Second Harvest Oct. 2 as the operation was in full swing. He said raising awareness and dollars for hunger relief is the impetus behind the annual event.
“Obviously, when you put football and food together, you can’t get any two things that are closer to the heart,” Kostroski said. “It’s a great way to support the fight against hunger.”
Magnanimous chefs
In addition to the premiere event, McPhail – as the host city chef – rallied his chef friends to open their restaurants from October through January leading up to the Super Bowl to host additional dinners in the Taste of the NFL New Orleans Series. Second Harvest will benefit from 100 percent of those proceeds.
McPhail said this is his second year working with the Taste of the NFL, but he has done many charitable events for Commander’s, including Taste of the Derby for the Kentucky Derby.
With New Orleans being known not only for great music, culture, history and food, McPhail said he has a challenge ahead of him to represent us well.
“We want to make sure that the food is the best it has ever been,” McPhail said about the Taste of the NFL event.
Another way to donate to the fight against hunger is to go online at Kick Hunger Challenge (KickHungerChallenge.com). In this fund-raiser, NFL teams compete to raise the most money for hunger relief. Anyone can donate money on behalf of a favorite football team or create a group and raise money, and 100 percent of the money goes to the local team’s food bank. Every dollar is equivalent to $15 worth of groceries, said Natalie Jayroe, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank.
Since its inception in 1992, the Taste of the NFL event has distributed more than $14 million in hunger relief, Kostroski said. The first year raised $90,000. The event now features 35 chefs and NFL players. Another $6 million has been raised at Taste of the NFL Dinner Series in each city. The host city receives 30 percent of proceeds for its food bank, while the other nationwide food banks share the remaining proceeds.
            Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordeon@clarionherald.org.