Nashville tornado: Thousands of meals meant for festival go to first responders instead

‘We wanted something positive to happen to the food that could not be repurposed,’ says catering company

An annual sports festival named after Arnold Schwarzenegger have donated thousands of meals meant for festival goers to first responders working with tornado victims in Nashville.

The Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, was prohibited from allowing general spectators to contain the spread of coronavirus, which has infected over 400 people in the US.

The organisers regrouped to determine what they could do with the food ordered to accommodate more than 200,000 people who usually attend the event, and decided to donate it to Nashville.

A refrigerated truck brought more than a tonne of chicken salad, egg salad sandwiches, mixed green salad, fruit, yogurt, a vegetable medley, brown rice, potato chips and bottled water to over 2,000 first responders to eat on Saturday evening.

Molly Dale, general manager for food service provider Levy, said in a statement: “While we were waiting for the press conference to start on Tuesday regarding the Arnold Sports Festival, all the news coverage was about the tornado in Nashville.

“We thought that if the Arnold Sports Festival situation unfolds the way we think it will, we wanted something positive to happen to the food that could not be repurposed.”

Tornadoes ripped through capital of Tennessee on Tuesday, uprooting trees, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing 24 people.

Volunteers were deployed to the devastated capital on Saturday to help residents with clean-up efforts.

John R Page, general manager of the Greater Columbus Convention Centre (GCCC), where the festival is being held, said: “We’re accustomed to accommodating ever-changing client needs at the GCCC.

“When the unique circumstances affecting the Arnold Sports Festival this year came to fruition, we were proud to be able to send excess food to assist Nashville residents impacted by true devastation while we focus our efforts here on supporting the Arnold Sports Festival in its revised format.

“This special effort augments our catering partner’s existing charitable practice of providing food donations to Food Rescue locally throughout the year.”