Donation of Excess Food from Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort Begins With Help from Disney Cast Members

As you know, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort have begun their temporary closures as part of the efforts to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus.

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Last week, Disney announced that the company is partnering — as it has done for many years in various ways — with Second Harvest Food Bank to distribute Disney’s donation of excess food during the closures in order to help serve local communities in Central Florida and in Orange County.

Walt Disney World cast members joined the Distribution Services team of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida today. This team oversees the collection and delivery of donations to the community where extra food inventory includes fresh salads, greens and “expertly cooked hot items.”

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Tajiana Ancora-Brown, Director of External Affairs at Walt Disney World Resort shares: “These donations would not be possible without the dedication of cast members behind the scenes who collect, sort and distribute every item to ensure it’s delivered with the highest level of freshness, keeping food safety top of mind.”

She also states, “We feel an immense sense of pride and excitement every time we see the Disney Harvest truck making deliveries in the community, and we’re so grateful for the team that makes these donations happen.”

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Food donations began over the weekend at Disneyland Resort. Donated food included excess inventory of dairy, fruit, vegetables, and packaged goods along with banquet meals. Second Harvest Food Bank quickly distributed the food to pantries and food distribution sites in Orange County.

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Harald Hermann is the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. He shared: “We are deeply grateful to Disneyland Resort for their generous donation of food.”

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“Donations of food, especially shelf-stable food, will be critical in the days and weeks ahead to serve those in our community impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.”

This is not the first time Disney has partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank. As part of a commitment to reduce food waste, unserved food from select locations is donated to Second Harvest Food Bank on a regular basis. In fact, over 1.2 million meals are provided to the resorts local Second Harvest Food Bank each year.

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Disney also contributes monetary donations, and Disney cast members donate time collecting, sorting and distributing food donations through the Disney VoluntEARS program.

You can see a bit of the efforts in action through the video from Disney by clicking here to visit the Disney Parks YouTube channel.

We here at DFB have been tracking the steps that Disney has taken around the parks to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. You can learn more about that here.

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