Thousands Of Meals Meant For Arnold Sports Festival Will Instead Be Sent To Nashville To Feed First Responders

March 12, 2020

Thousands of meals meant for an Ohio sports festival will instead be sent to Nashville to feed first responders.

It’s a sad day for me and everyone at the @ArnoldSports team. But we will always put our fans’ health first. After discussions with @GovMikeDeWine, @MayorGinther, and the CDC, we will be postponing the expo because we can’t risk bringing 250,000 people together with #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/Fuzcmapxiy

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 3, 2020

After being forced to cancel the Arnold Classic Expo due to fears over Covid-19, the event organizers were left with enough food to feed around 200,000 people.

Rather than add to the already massive food waste problem, the meals are heading to the victims and first responders helping to clean up Nashville in the aftermath of the largest tornado to hit the area.

"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," said Molly Dale, general manager for Levy, the Greater Columbus Convention Center's food service provider. "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."

The donation includes chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches, mixed green salad, fruit, yogurt, a vegetable medley, brown rice, potato chips and bottled water.