Athletes, stars lend hands in Super Bowl host city

(AP) Some athletes and celebrities headed to New Orleans for Super Bowl weekend are picking up hammers and packaging food for the homeless in the big game's host city.

The downtown area where most Super Bowl festivities will happen has arguably never looked better, with a renovated Superdome and resurfaced streets and sidewalks. But a closer look at the city reveals homelessness and outer-lying neighborhoods that still bear the scars of 2005, when levees collapsed during Hurricane Katrina and inundated more than 80 percent of the city with floodwater.

One of the city's biggest areas of need is housing. While in town, some athletes and celebrities are working with Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together. Others are working with Make-A-Wish Foundation and the food bank Second Harvest.