The United States Department of Agriculture cites Super Bowl Sunday as the second largest day of food consumption all year – after Thanksgiving, of course.  The Super Bowl brings together families and friends across the nation for one real purpose: to eat. Sure, the game is a big deal, but, let’s be honest, the Super Bowl is about food.

One of the most popular Super Bowl snacks? Pizza.

According to Forbes, Americans buy 12.5 million pizzas for the big day. With each order costing an average of $26.45, that means millions of dollars in revenue on that one day alone.

The weekend leading up to the big day is labor intensive. Pizza Hut announced its decision to hire 11,000 new employees leading up to the February 5 game. Papa John’s boasts stocking over two million pounds of cheese in preparation for the bountiful number of orders. Delivery staffs are anticipated to clock in over 300,000 miles.

Robin Thomas, a delivery woman for Pizza Hut on Baxter Street, knows something about clocking in those miles. Thomas has only been working for six months, but she believes Super Bowl Sunday will be one of her busiest nights to date: “I’ve made six deliveries already, and by the end of the day, I’ll make at least twenty [more].”

Unsurprisingly, the most popular pizza choices for the game are traditional cheese and pepperoni. Other popular toppings include mushrooms, onions, sausage, and pineapple.

 

Baxter Street in Athens is no stranger to pizza. With a Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Hungry Howie’s all within one block of each other, saying pizza is a popular food choice in this college town is an understatement.

Marquis Bryson, a junior sports management student at UGA and Papa John’s employee, says Papa John’s on Baxter Street was prepared to sell up to 1500 pizzas for Super Bowl Sunday. “We’re pretty well staffed here so we had everyone working today. It usually goes pretty smoothly,” reports Bryson. “We’ve prepped, like, 300 or 400 wings, too.”

No matter who you’re pulling for in the big game or who wins, leftover pizza will be there to comfort you in the morning.  Be the MVP of your Super Bowl party and bring the ‘za for everyone to enjoy! And remember those working at your favorite pizza joint have been grinding all day — so don’t forget to tip!