Republicans, complain all you want to about the President moving his acceptance speech Friday Thursday indoors due to storms, what the Democrats did afterwards for Charlotte is outstanding. The logistics for the event move included deciding what to do with all the food for the 65,000 people expected to be on hand, and when the event was moved, the DNC absolutely did the right thing.
All the fancy catered food intended for the VIP suites and club rooms at the stadium – and perhaps even for the president himself – was redistributed Friday to local soup kitchens and shelters, via Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.
On the menu: thousands of pounds of pecan-fried chicken, baked orzo, fresh crudités, three-bean bake, fresh-cut fruit and something called short rib cobbler.
And that’s only a partial list.
It had all been prepared in advance by chef Jon Morey and the kitchen staff of Delaware North Inc., the official food provider for the stadium. A dollar value for the food was not immediately available.
“It’s really a wonderful order,” said Kay Carter of Second Harvest, which got 7,500 pounds of the food.
“None of this food will go to waste. We contacted every shelter and soup kitchen in town and asked them how much refrigeration capacity they have and how many are they feeding. It will all be gone at the end of the day.”
Second Harvest has a history of redistributing fresh food at a moment’s notice, she said, including leftovers from major golf tournaments.
However, the Democratic National Convention’s gift is different, if only for the inclusion of enough popcorn for 70,000 people, popped and stuffed into bags. It will go to the community’s various children’s programs, including low-income day cares. “At least it doesn’t weigh a lot,” Carter said.
This is outstanding, and more people need to know about it. Spread the word.
Poopyman
Thanks, Dems! Second Harvest takes monthly donations from my credit card. It’s simple and fast. Hint, hint.
Olivia
The Republicans will look at this and bitch about enabling all those people who are too lazy to get a job to buy their own food.
beltane
This reinforces the whole theme of this year’s convention and that theme was morality. Not the shrieking “OMG the wimmins and gays are out of control” morality of the right, but the moral imperative of compassion as expressed by Sister Simone Campbell and many, many others. Unlike the RNC, this was-and I say this as a non-theist-a deeply Christian convention. Not all of us have faith in God but what we do share is faith in each other.
Schlemizel
WTF are we spreading the word on this? doesn’t the campaign have a PR operation that should have made a big deal of this while the cameras were on?
But it does make me proud to know that in the vast reaches of a campaign with all the jurisdictions and bureaucracy they always entail the organization did the right thing. These are good people & that makes me happy.
NotMax
Speech was on Thursday.
Villago Delenda Est
“Outstanding” is a good word, but doesn’t seem to properly convey the awesomeness of the thought and planning that went into the entire convention, down to details like this.
The Obama people are seriously on their game.
brettvk
Do you think the Repubs will contend that meals were prepared for 65,000 people just to prop up Obama’s claim that he would draw that many for his speech? You know, like their sneer that the move indoors was just to cover the fact that he couldn’t fill the stadium…
Linda Featheringill
That’s lovely.
It was a deeply spiritual convention, with emphasis on being your brother’s keeper. Religions all over the world value people helping each other and members of those religions might have felt right at home at the convention.
One of the most moving sights for me was the enthusiastic response Sister Simone got, just for preaching that folks should try to help those who need help. And we all need help at one time or another.
Omnes Omnibus
@Schlemizel: There are times where having things spread by word of mouth is better. If the donation were done in front of the cameras, if could seem like it was done for the cameras. Done quietly, it seems more like just doing the right thing. In the end, the word still gets out to those to whom it matters.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
You’ve hit a note here that I think we need to amplify.
A lot of “Christians” seem to be obsessed with all the supernatural horseshit about an afterlife at the expense of the good things in the here and now that should be done. This is why the works approach is superior to the faith approach. Works demonstrate faith in a tangible way. Fundie Christians can be, for all practical purposes, followers of the cult of Rand and its emphasis on selfishness and still have their supernatural bullshit to keep them warm, thus missing the entire fucking point.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Boy, they were so worried about not filling all the seats in the stadium, they even changed the day!
ETA: FSM damn you, brettvk!
Zandar
@NotMax:
Fixed.
Been a loooooong week.
maya
IF there had been any food leftover at the RNC it would have been deliberately thrown out. Thus providing the 1% with an added sport watching the homeless and poor of Tampa dumpster diving.
Villago Delenda Est
@maya:
These people cannot enjoy their food unless they know others are starving.
xian
@maya: actually, someone should research what the GOP did do with any of its leftovers
gogol's wife
@beltane:
This is a great comment, but as a Christian I’d say the convention conveyed a deeply Christian message while still being inclusive of every faith and those who don’t believe in God but believe in taking responsibility for their fellow humans. I do recognize a true Christian in Obama, just in the way he speaks and the references he makes, because we all have to have our own references, but he manages to make it embracing of all rather than speaking to a club. I am so proud of him and admiring of him.
gogol's wife
@Villago Delenda Est:
I made this comment the other day on a dead thread, but in our church we almost never talk about the afterlife. Our ministers don’t pretend to “know” what’s going to happen to us after we die. They emphasize having faith while we’re in this life and trying to live and treat others as Christ would have us do. That’s all they talk about. The last sermon in our church was entirely based on the Bible, didn’t mention a single current event, but if it had ended with the words “Vote for Obama,” it wouldn’t have been inappropriate.
HRA
It matters not whether we have a religious affiliation or do not have one. What matters is giving a helping hand to those who are in need of it. “It’s who we are.”
Thank you for bringing this story to light.
General Stuck
Wingnut leftovers went to feeding the crocodiles in Freeperville.
Kdrtoona
Yes yes that is all well and noble and what not but I think the important thing here is short rib cobbler! WANT! Please please I need that recipe.
Narcissus
Yeah wouldn’t want to create a culture of dependency
danah gaz
Yay. This is smothered in awesome. =)
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t consider hard-core Evangelicals to be Christians. Because they aren’t. There needs to be another word for them, to make this distinction.
Sully’s “Christianists” usage is a good attempt, but probably a bit too subtle.
I’ve been trying to think of a one-word solution, myself, but can’t.
TK421
That was nice of them, since a record number of Americans now need food stamps.
http://gawker.com/5940763/record-number-of-americans-now-using-food-stamps
And Democrats in congress cut money for food stamps:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/democrats-not-trying-to-p_n_1614248.html
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@maya:
The RNC gave their left over food to the cops, who distributed it to homeless people. I am glad that the RNC, for once, actually did a decent thing.
Yutsano
Now that is indeed a mitzvah.
@TK421: Piss off copulator of rodentia.
peggy
OT. Besides the strong themes of mercy, charity and love at the convention, I also noticed the number of people who had taken bullets. (martyrs?) Gabrielle Giffords, the veterans and the candidates and reps with Purple Hearts. The NRA has bluster while our side has courage and faithfulness, which are also Christian, classic virtues.
Haydnseek
@xian: Easy. They lost their primaries. Check the nearest ice floe.
Chyron HR
@TK421:
Oh, look, the True Progressives are taking their talking points from Newt Gingrich now. But they’re doing it “from the left”, so that’s okay.
Jay in Oregon
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Pharisees?
The Moar You Know
@xian: I think Chris Christie was in charge of that detail. I hear he did a heckuva job.
ding dong
That soshulist Demoncrat Party. They are doing it just to buy the votes of the hungry people this foods going to go to!
kdaug
@Omnes Omnibus:
Faith without works is dead – works without faith are sublime.
If you pray, pray in your closet.
But do good for it’s own sake.
dww44
@Omnes Omnibus: Perfect response!!
gravie
Just shared it on Facebook and within two minutes it had been re-shared by three different people. Yes!
grandpa john
#comment-3695629″>HRA:
@gogol’s wife:
And this is also the fundamental doctrine of what Christianity is supposed to be about as taught by Jesus.
You are to care for the poor, the needy, the children , the sick ,you are to love they neighbor as thyself
Unfortunately over the centuries too many false prophets have decided they know better than God and have decided that they should be the arbiters of what makes one a Christian, so enters all the non -biblical crap that Jesus did not teach about gays or abortions or any of the other minute sins that they have created.
Forget the Old Testament laws . Jesus clearly explained that with his birth and death, a new covenant was established with his people and all that old Mosaic law stuff no longer applied
grandpa john
@ding dong: Hilarity ensues from the wing nut supposed Christians blasting “Soc ialism”‘ since if they truly lived the form of Christianity that Jesus taught, the would indeed be living a form of social ism
Maeve
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
There already s a word:
They practice Bibliodolatry
Brachiator
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
This is one of the rare occasions when “both sides do it” actually applies, and applies to something good.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
That’s almost as soshulist as the guy who handed out loaves and fishes!
Bill E Pilgrim
This Democratic convention will long be remembered for not one but two or three of the best speeches in any convention in history if not political history, for being the most diverse and inclusive ever, and for being generous to the community.
The Republican convention will long be remembered as the one where Clint Eastwood engaged in a battle of wits with a chair and lost.
Scott S.
@TK421: Ain’t you that guy who rattles on and on about REVOLUTION and SHEEPLE and ARMED REBELLION and pretty much just sits and whines on blogs all day?
Ian Welsh = Brave Sir Robin.
Nancy Irving
If this had happened to R-Money/R-Ayn, they would probably have flushed it down the toilet rather than donate it to the moochers and looters and lucky duckies.
joel hanes
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
here needs to be another word for [ hard-core Christian Evangelicals ]
Zealots
Talibangelicals.
American Taliban
Cain
@Bill E Pilgrim:
And like a republican thought he won.
Mnemosyne
@Chyron HR:
I’ve noticed before how amazing it is the people from the left and people from the right just happen to come up with the exact same talking points. I guess it’s supposed to convince us that those talking points must be true if people on both sides are repeating them.
Bill Murray
@kdaug: I’m your huckleberry