Prof, students to help coordinate Super Bowl 'Taste of the NFL'

From @Metro

On Feb. 6, Lamb, the director of culinary administration in the Hospitality, Tourism and Events Department at Metro State, will be responsible for coordinating 300 volunteers at Taste of the NFL, a fundraiser dinner for 3,000 people.


It will be Lamb's 10th year in this role at the $500-a-ticket event to raise hunger awareness throughout America, with proceeds going to Second Harvest Food Banks across the nation. Each booth has a football player representing their home team and one dish from the city'fs selected chef. Denver's chef is Troy Guard, owner of Tag restaurant in Larimer Square. Former Denver Bronco Karl Mecklenburg will be serving up food as well.


HTE students Jeremy Gable, Susan Hunley and Todd Reenan are paying their own airfare to travel to Florida to volunteer three12-hour days helping top chefs from around the country prepare for the event.

For 19 years, the Taste of the NFL event has raised hunger awareness and funds.
"This will be the biggest event I have participated in thus far, so I am looking forward to any new experiences that may come along the way," says Hunley, a senior who plans to own an event production company. "I want to be a sponge and soak up as much as I can and hopefully make some connections."


Gable, a sophomore who has worked in the restaurant industry for more than eight years, is "hoping to learn more about the operational side of events such as the Taste of the NFL."

Though the magnitude of this event may be new to the students, working with their professor outside of the classroom is not. Lamb regularly integrates community outreach into his classes, taking students to work at local nonprofits where he is actively involved. Those include Father Woody's Haven of Hope, which provides more than 200 needy people with food every day; The Dolores Project, a homeless shelter for single women; and the Food Bank of the Rockies, where he serves on the board of directors.

"Those experiences help me to know how to plan to cook for 200 people. This is the kind of planning I don't do on a daily basis," says Reenan, who manages a bar.