With Tokyo 2020 Postponed, Colorado Food Banks Serve Up Olympic Leftovers

The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed a year, and for me, a lapsed jock, this raises a million questions: How will athletes add another year to their perfectly tailored training schedules? Will another 12 months mean that gymnasts will have aged out of their competitive peaks? And why, why are the games still going by Tokyo 2020, even though they'll take place in 2021? One question I hadn't thought to ask is a critical one: What happens to all that food? The answer, luckily, is a civic-minded one. Last week, a truckload of food meant to feed America's top athletes was donated to a Colorado Springs food bank.

The Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs closed its operations in mid-March, following the governor's directives. Apparently, they were left on the hook for a shipment of $125,000 worth of food for their athletes in training. That was about one ton of grub, probably enough to feed an elite marathoner for four whole days. Instead of letting the food go to waste, the center did the decent thing and offloaded their top-grade foodstuffs to Share and Care, a local food bank. The food bank told KKTV they'd be distributing the shipment to food banks in 31 counties in Southern Colorado, prorated based on population size.

Giving 2,000 pounds of vittles to charity is a classy move at all times, but particularly amid a pandemic. Last week, The Guardian reported U.S. food banks are facing "unprecedented demand" as unemployment skyrockets, while puzzling through the logistical nightmare of keeping workers and volunteers safe. Nonprofits nationwide are seeing double, triple, and quadruple the demand they had two weeks ago. To donate, find your local food bank here.