As millions of soccer fans prepare to descend on the New York metropolitan area for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one Long Island nonprofit is preparing for a different kind of game plan — making sure thousands of pounds of leftover food feed hungry families instead of ending up in landfills.
Rock and Wrap It Up!, a Cedarhurst-based anti-poverty nonprofit focused on food recovery, has partnered with FIFA and MetLife Stadium to recover excess food from World Cup events taking place in June and July 2026.
The organization, founded in 1991 by Syd Mandelbaum, has spent more than three decades redistributing unused food from sporting events, concerts, schools and other venues to food pantries and charities across the country.
“We’ve been picking up at MetLife Stadium for 21 years,” Mandelbaum said. “All the food from Jets and Giants games goes to us, as well as food from Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden and UBS Arena. Our faith-based volunteers pick it up and distribute it to people in need.”
Now, the nonprofit is preparing for what could become one of its largest food recovery operations yet.
MetLife Stadium will host eight matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including the championship final on July 19. The tournament itself will feature 48 national teams competing across the United States, Canada and Mexico in what is expected to become the largest World Cup in history.
Mandelbaum said MetLife officials first approached Rock and Wrap It Up! last year to discuss handling food recovery for the global tournament.
“They asked, ‘Can it be done?’” Mandelbaum recalled. “We said, ‘We’ve already been doing it for the last 20 years.’”
The organization expects to recover food not only from matches themselves, but also from related hospitality events, media gatherings and celebrations connected to the tournament.
“We did a pickup for FIFA last summer and recovered over 7,000 pounds of food,” Mandelbaum said. “With the World Cup, I expect it to be pretty big.”
Rock and Wrap It Up! plans to coordinate with partner agencies throughout New Jersey, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Westchester County to ensure food is quickly distributed after events conclude.
“We don’t go the day of the game because the food isn’t ready yet,” Mandelbaum explained. “Usually we’ll go Monday or Tuesday afterward, so we avoid traffic and security issues. We’re prepared to take whatever they want to donate.”
Mandelbaum, a former scientist, said the nonprofit tracks how food recovery reduces greenhouse gas emissions, conserves water and prevents waste from entering landfills.
“We convert pounds of food into sustainability numbers,” he said. “We can tell our partners how much greenhouse gas was diverted, how much water was saved and how many meals were created using USDA meal equivalency statistics.”
Those sustainability metrics are often included in stadium and venue reports, and Mandelbaum said the same process will be used during the World Cup.
Brad Sims, chief executive officer of New York City FC, said the World Cup represents a defining moment for soccer in the region.
“Soccer is growing faster in the United States than ever before, and New York has always been at the heart of that story,” Sims wrote in a statement. “The 2026 World Cup is a chance to celebrate everything that makes this sport and this state special.”
For Mandelbaum, the partnership reflects something even larger — using one of the world’s biggest sporting events to help address hunger.
“We know there will be excess food,” he said. “The important thing is making sure it feeds people instead of being wasted.”
