Delta Air Lines is left with hundreds of thousands of pounds of extra food after cutting back on in-flight meal and beverage service and slashing flights.
What to do with the surplus?
The airline says it is donating 200,000 pounds of it to hospitals, food banks and other organizations.
On many of its flights, Delta has replaced in-flight beverages with just bottled water and is removing meal service to reduce contact between customers and flight attendants. It is also reducing Sky Club offerings
Some of the food would have expired before it could have been served to passengers. The Atlanta-based airline is partnering with other companies to help prepare and distribute it.
Atlanta chef Linton Hopkins has long partnered with Delta to prepare meals for business class passengers to Europe, but nearly all of Delta's flights to Europe have been cut.
Now, Delta is providing trays and packaging supplies to Hopkins for food to be distributed to unemployed hospitality workers. He is delivering more than 5,000 meals a week to people including first responders at Emory University Hospital.
Feeding America is helping Delta distribute donations to agencies such as Georgia Food & Resource Center and organizations in other cities.
Delta is also sending boxed meals to its reservations centers, where its employees have been deluged with calls from millions of passengers canceling flights and asking for refunds.
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