Lionel Messi’s wedding was all the rage over the weekend, as the Argentinian star finally tied the knot with his childhood sweetheart, Antonella Roccuzzo. If public declarations of love aren’t enough to warm the heart, this week brought the news that the Messis have donated all the leftover food and drinks from the wedding to a local Rosario, Argentina charity.
According to Spanish news agency EFE (h/t Marca), the leftovers from the wedding were given to the Rosario Food Bank, which helps feed underprivileged families in Messi’s hometown.
In addition to a “sushi station”, the menu was stockpiled with traditional Argentine food, from empanadas to blood sausage and all the works in between. After the wedding, thankfully, none of the delicious food will go to waste.
Pablo Algrain, the Rosario Food Bank’s director, spoke on the donations, including the fact that they can’t take wine and beer for the bank: “It all arrived to the store and we’re controlling it. We don’t yet know quite how much there is. We explained to the wedding organizers that we can accept soft drinks and snacks, but that we’d have to change alcoholic drinks for money because we cannot accept them.”
Messi is no stranger to charity–despite recent accusations of tax evsaion, his Leo Messi Foundation has been in existence since 2007, and his recent partnership with a Barcelona hospital is helping fight childhood cancer. Earlier this year, Messi’s foundation helped build 20 classrooms for schools in Syria, helping over 1,600 children caught up in that country’s civil war get an education. In 2015, Messi donated £315,000 to UNICEF for ‘Un Sol Para Los Chicos’ (A Sun For The Children). He also recently visited Egypt as part of Tour N’ Cure, a campaign promoting the country as a medical destination for Hepatitis C patients.
For all of the heat Messi takes about his admittedly awful tax record, the world’s best futbolero certainly gives back to his multiple communities. This latest example has turned even an extravagant wedding featuring some of the world’s biggest stars into an opportunity to help out his beloved Rosario.