LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — With the ski resorts and casinos being forced to close, Vail Resorts and Caesars Entertainment donated their leftover food.

Following the announcement that Vail would close for the season, 34 of its resorts immediately began donating excess perishable food including vegetables, fruits, dairy, juices and prepared salads to local food banks, schools, and community organizations.

Both Northstar California Ski Resort and Heavenly Mountain Resort participated in the food donation.

Northstar provided a truckload of food (mostly perishable but also non-perishables) to the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District which they will distribute between eight school kitchens. They also donated food to Sierra Community House. Overall, Northstar has donated 15,000 pounds of food to the two groups.

“In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to help mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19 in our community, we closed our local schools on March 16, and transitioned to distance learning,” said Kelli Twomey, Parent & Community Relations, Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. “We know that many of our children rely on us to receive their main meal of the day and our district is proud to be offering free “grab and go” meals (with lunch and breakfast for the next day) for anyone 18 and under while we’re closed. Our district is so appreciative of Northstar’s truckload donation of fresh fruit and veggies, milk, meats, soups and more which enhanced the meals we are offering our kids.”

Heavenly donated two pallets of food to Bread & Broth and is expected to give more.

The resorts aren’t the only ones donating food, Harrah’s and Harveys at Stateline also donated their perishable food to Bread & Broth, as well as, the Boys and Girls Club Lake Tahoe.

On Saturday, March 21, BGCLT hosted an open-air food distribution where anyone in the community could come get food, no questions asked. They gave away 150 bags of food thanks to donations from Ten Crows BBQ, Tahoe Girls Scouts, Barton Health and Caesars Entertainment, the parent company of Harrah’s and Harveys.

In addition, Heavenly donated 15 cases of a variety of lettuces, two cases of shredded carrots and a variety of other foods like roots to Lake Tahoe Wildcare Care. LTWC has web cams available for people to watch the animals enjoy that food.