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Credit: DisneyWhen the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California announced that it would close its gates on account of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19, someone had the good sense to ask “Wait, what are we going to do with all this food?” Disneyland isn’t just going to be stuck with a surplus of theme park food but also banquet meals and other meats, fruits, and vegetables utilized in the theme park restaurants. It was going to go bad. Well, someone else helped come up with a brilliant solution. Donate it!
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The Disneyland Resort has an ongoing commitment to reducing food waste, and during the temporary closure of Disneyland park and Disney California Adventure park will be donating excess food inventory to Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.
While closely following food safety guidelines, excess inventory of dairy, fruit, vegetables, packaged goods and banquet meals is being donated to Second Harvest Food Bank, whose mission is to end hunger in Orange County.
This is not the first time Disneyland has donated food. The resort has been operating a food donation program since 2014 which ensures that prepared unserved food is donated to people in the local area who need it. Last year, the Disneyland Resort donated over 20,000 meals to Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. Disneyland also has an environmental program called the food scraps diversion program which is tasked with reducing food waste.
Stories like this show once again how Disney is attempting to bring real magic and real joy into real world and how essential the Disneyland Resort has become for the local community. One has to wonder if the resort and its voluntEARs will beat their record of 20,000+ meals while the theme parks stay closed for at least two weeks. We’ll be standing by waiting to find out.
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