Pittsburgh-area native who opened his own food pantry receives free tickets to Super Bowl LX

The Pittsburgh Steelers are not going to the Super Bowl this year, but one man from Whitehall is.

AJ Owen is flying out for the Super Bowl Saturday morning with his brother. KDKA-TV introduced Owen in November, when he started a food pantry on his lawn, after many people on SNAP benefits lost their benefits during the government shutdown.

Yahya Black, a defensive lineman from the Steelers, showed up at Owen's pantry with hundreds of dollars in food. That encounter sparked a friendship, and even some tickets to a prior game.

"He's presented myself with Pittsburgh Steelers tickets at the Steelers game versus the Ravens, which we won, obviously," Owen said.

Then came January, when Black surprised Owen with tickets for the work he did providing food for people who needed it.

"Never would I have in a million years guessed that it was going to be Super Bowl tickets," Owen said. "Even here, a month later, after those were presented to us, still at a loss for words."

On Sunday, it's going to be real. Owen and his brother will be sitting in Santa Clara, California, at Levi's Stadium. Owen did not tell KDKA-TV who he was rooting for, by the way.

Owen says he has not packed his things yet. But there is still a lot of packing to do at the pantry he set up. It has grown immensely in the past three months.

"We've gone from a tote and a couple of hand coolers to a legitimate tent shelter with 10-plus totes and an overflow table," Owen said.

It's helped those in need, which was the only thing he had set out to do.

"This is something that just started being a good person," Owen said.