return to taste of the nfl

long time readers will remember that last year, i got invited to attend taste of the nfl. those readers will also remember that after the event, i wrote a post about it that stirred up some controversy. in a nutshell, i thought it was a good event in concept (raising money for the freestore foodbank while allowing bengals fans to eat good food and meet the team), but in practice it was kind of disturbing for the following reasons: a) there was very little emphasis on the fact that the event was actually for the freestore foodbank, b) a shit ton of food was being thrown away at an event that was meant to benefit hungry people, and c) nobody seemed to be the least bit bothered by those things.

so i wrote my post and put my opinion out there and got a lot of feedback, both in comments and in personal emails. some people agreed with me and others thought i was being obnoxious. it was one of the most interesting debates we have had on this blog so even if i came across as an asshole i felt like it was worth it. and at any rate, i was sharing my opinion which is what this blog is all about. if you don't like it, don't read it.

i was sure after that post that i would stop getting invites to free events (most of which i don't attend anyway) and sure enough, the invites slowed to a trickle. nobody likes a blogger who bites the hand that feeds her. i figured my taste of the nfl post probably annoyed and/or offended a lot of people who might have previously thought of my blog as a potential marketing opportunity for them and they probably would not be reaching out to me anymore. and that was fine with me.

so imagine my surprise when i received the following email:

Hi Liz-

Taste of the NFL is coming up soon and we remember your post from last year’s event. You made several good points that we’ve wrestled with ourselves. Food waste has always been a difficult issue as is our attempt to balance our identity with the Bengals connection. This is actually an event that happens in many NFL cities with the cooperation of the league, so NFL and Bengals ID is not only valuable but dictated to some extent. However, maybe it’s possible to raise our ID.

The reason for the e-mail: Would you be willing to get together with me and the folks here who plan the event so we can get some of your ideas about these issues? We always want to do things better if we can. Please let me know.

Best regards,

Brian M.

Vice President of Communications & Strategic Planning

Freestore Foodbank

i could not believe it. here i wrote this fairly negative critique of the event, and i am sure people at the freestore foodbank were offended by it (this was after getting past my shock that they had even read it... i am always a little taken aback when i find out that people actually read this blog). but instead of writing me off, they wanted to talk to me. of course i said yes.

the meeting took place a few days ago. i was invited to tour the new freestore foodbank facilities on central parkway, which are beautiful. i also got to see the cincinnati cooks kitchen, which is awesome. here is a description of cincinnati cooks in case you have not heard of it:

Cincinnati COOKS! is a free, ten-week culinary training program that prepares low income, at-risk individuals for employment in the food service industry as well as teaches life and job skills components to ensure the graduates success. Currently operating from the Rosenthal Community Kitchen, Cincinnati COOKS! uses donated and rescued food to prepare meals and snacks, much of which is used to feed children in our Kids Café Program.

i learned that not only are people enrolling and getting important job skills from the program, but they actually have an 80% graduation rate, and even more importantly a 75% hiring rate. that is awesome.

brian and a couple of his colleagues took me to lunch at enzo's (which is awesome and deserves its own post and i can't believe i hadn't been there yet) and we had a really open, honest, and interesting conversation about the taste of the nfl event. i learned that they make as a profit approximately $160k-$200k at the event. all the food is donated to the restaurants by their vendors, and the restaurants donate staff time to prepare food for and work at the event. the alcohol is donated. the bengals items are donated. the serving items (dishes/napkins/silverware/etc.) are not donated, and are the cheapest items possible (which is why they are not recyclable). the bengals are contractually required to be there for at least an hour, and do not get any extra pay for it since it is during their spring mini-camp. the use of the space is donated.

the freestore foodbank gives restaurants guidelines for how much food to prepare so that there is limited waste. they recommend about 200 servings, and absolutely no more than 300. over 1000 people attend the event but the organizers are aware that no one can try everything, hence the limit. some restaurants listen to these guidelines and some don't. also, it's impossible to predict which dishes will be a hit at the event and which will be ignored. sometimes restaurants make less food than they are supposed to so that they can appear to be popular.

another thing i learned (which i guess i sort of knew but did not really think about) is that the taste of the nfl is a national event. all (maybe? maybe it is just some) of the nfl teams do a similar event. the cincinnati event raises the most money of all of them except for the taste of the superbowl event (which i think is just on a whole other scale). it is the second highest grossing event that the freestore foodbank does (the highest grossing event is the rubber duck regatta).

we talked a lot about how to raise awareness of the freestore foodbank at the event. my view is that most of the people who go to the event are there for the bengals and don't know (or maybe don't care) that they are actually also raising money for hungry people. it's very much a party atmosphere and showing a slideshow of starving babies or something would not be appropriate or effective. but we discussed different ideas of how to bring the freestore foodbank more to the forefront of the event.

we also talked about the food waste. i'm not sure there is much that they can do to resolve this problem. i was really impressed at how much thought the freestore foodbank has given this issue. they have investigated programs like second helpings in indianapolis as an option. but there are a few problems. first, any food that is prepared at the event is no longer re-servable by law. second, much of the food is prepared a day or several days in advance, making it even less likely to be safe to eat after the event. finally, transportation of the food is a big problem since only recently did the freestore foodbank acquire a refrigerated truck, and it's not big enough to hold all the food. plus, even if they were able to transport it, they would not have a place to store it that late at night. and then what would they do with it?

they don't like throwing it away, and maybe there are other solutions that they have not thought of, but i was really impressed with how much thought had gone into this issue. they are very aware of the problem and want to do things differently but can't think of a feasible solution. i'm not saying this should be the end of the road on this discussion, but they are actively seeking solutions, and just haven't found any yet, and i respect that.

this was one of the most interesting and refreshing conversations on the needs of our community and what a very dedicated organization is doing to resolve them that i have had in a long time. and i have a lot of those conversations believe it or not. a lot of my concerns about the taste of the nfl event were assuaged and the freestore foodbank was open to my ideas about how they could make some changes.

continue to suspend your disbelief for a second: they have invited me back to the taste of the nfl. so i will be at the event and will give you a full report on how things measure up as compared to last year, and with a new perspective on what goes into it. if you would like to join me, mark your calendar for june 16 and don't forget to buy your tickets.