Leafs and Canucks donate thousands of pounds of unsold food from postponed games to local food bank

Both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks have announced that they've donated the thousands of pounds of food that would have been sold at their now postponed home games over this week to local charities and food banks.

The Canucks by themselves have donated the equivalent of 36,000 meals to the local Salvation Army and Vancouver Food Bank.

"We've done this before, unfortunately when COVID first happened, so it wasn't our first rodeo," said Robert Bartley, executive chef with Canucks Sports and Entertainment.

"We got a few pallets of produce, we got some buns, we got some pre-cooked meals — things like hamburgers, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, green beans. Anything that would have been served at the Canucks games," said Alex Beyer, operations manager with the food bank. "It's all good stuff."

Beyer said that the Vancouver food bank is always hardest hit over the winter months, but that recent flooding in the province and the disruption of truck shipments has made things even more difficult this season. Kudos to the Canucks, and to the Leafs, for stepping up to serve their community.