Disneyland is closed and while I wasn't planning to visit anytime soon, the fact that the option doesn't exist is somehow the most depressing part of this whole thing. The closure of the happiest place on earth due to coronavirus put out a lot of vacationers as well as a lot of Disney cast members, but luckily some good will come out of it as Disney has confirmed that all of the food that would otherwise have gone unused during the shutdown will be donated to an area food bank.
Disneyland has had a deal since 2014 to donate any food that goes unused to the Second Harvest food bank of Orange County, but with the park closed, that means there will be a lot more food going unused. Luckily the donations will continue and that means that the food bank will receive a lot of extra food during a period when it will likely be sorely needed. People are able are being asked to stay home, but of course, the unsheltered population doesn't have that option. But with fewer people on the streets and many places closed, the opportunities to find food elsewhere have shrunk, making places like Second Harvest that much more vital.
According to Disney Parks, the Disneyland Resort donated 20,000 meals worth of food last year, and considering more people than that visit the park most days, it would seem like quite a significant amount of food will be on the way considering with the park closed basically all of it wold be considered "excess" food.
At this point Disneyland and Walt Disney World, are scheduled to be closed through the end of March, the longest closure that either resort has seen since they have opened. Of course, while it's only been a few days since the parks closed, it already feels like the closure could last significantly longer than that. Considering that Disneyland provides food for tens of thousands of people on any given day, that's a lot of food that could be going to the food bank for some time.
Of course, if this closure does last a while, then Disneyland will be forced to make a decision. Some amount of food has already been purchased for the guests the resort thought it would be feeding right now, but at some point those contracts will be put on hold and food will stop flowing to save costs. Or it might simply continue, so that Disneyland has the supply it needs once we all get the green light and the park comes back to life. One of the biggest questions that remains about this entire situation is just how quickly things will be able to rev back up now that they've come to a complete stop.
In the end, it's the simple things that matter right now, and so it's great to see Disneyland Resort doing some good in the world. We could all use it.
