US Olympic Committee donates food to Care and Share

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- With Tokyo postponing the Olympic Games until 2021 because of COVID-19, it's not just the athletes who won't be making the trip, it's also the food that was supposed to go with them. The US Olympic Committee decided to call the Care and Share food bank.

"They called us. We rescue food from the Olympic center normally," said Care and Share C.O.O. Shannon Brice. "They thankfully made a delightful phone call for us to receive and said, 'Hey we have some food, would you like it?' And we said, 'Of course'."

The donation amounts to roughly $125 thousand worth of food, taking up about 32 pallets.

"I would expect that it's over a ton of food," Brice said. "It's a wide variety of product that came in. I saw coffee, some snack food items, and all of those things will be super valuable for our partner agencies to serve to our families."

The massive donation will prove invaluable, given the road ahead.

"We are doing everything we can to get our hands on as much food as possible," Brice said. "Being able to receive a truckloads worth of food for us right now is so important. As this continues to happen and we continue to deal with this pandemic, that support of our organization in the long-haul is going to be massively critical for us to meet the need. Most of the expiration is near the end of this year, which is great. We'll have plenty of time to turn that around."

Just when you think Coloradans have given enough or have done all they can, someone else finds a way to make a difference. Coloradans don't seem to have a limit on their generosity.

"I think we all would have wanted the Olympics to happen," Brice said. "We probably don't want this thing, this pandemic, to be happening. As a result of it, it's so beautiful to know that the United States Olympic Committee is able to turn that food into nourishment for our neighbors in need."