Messi donates wedding leftovers to food bank

Lionel Messi and Antonella Rocuzzo got married in Rosario and countless celebrities, friends and family were in attendance.

There guest list of 260 people included Barcelona and Argentina teammates like Neymar Jr., Luis Suarez and Sergio Aguero and there was plenty of leftover food and drinks after the end of celebrations.

The Barcelona legend didn’t let any food go to waste. He donated the leftovers to charity via the Rosario Food Bank.

Rosario Food Bank president Nadia Nazer told Rosario-based newspaper La Capital: "For us any type of donation is very well received and to be honest, we are very happy that they took us into consideration.

"One of the wedding organisers got in contact with our executive director, Pablo Algrain, to offer us snacks, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks.

"We told them that we had to exchange the alcoholic beverages for money as we cannot give them to institutions.

"We have friends who own bars and they buy them from us and that allows us to transform it into money as a donation to the food bank."

This wasn’t the first act of solidarity that the couple showed during their wedding. The couple asked the guests in the invitation to donate to Techo instead of buying them lavish presents and gifts.

According to an ESPN FC report, the invitation cards read: "In order to transform our joy to an act of solidarity, in place of a gift, we ask you to donate to Techo."

Techo is a non-profit organisation that works in South America and the Caribbean to help families living in extreme poverty.

Techo communications director told La Capital: "For the time being we prefer to be cautious and not give a number in terms of how much we have received because there are still some donations that have yet to arrive.

"We are still receiving donations from foreign banks and it takes a while for them to arrive.

"They [Messi and Roccuzzo] gave us the freedom to decide where to spend the money because they know our programs and that it will be used to give continuity to those projects."

Messi’s foundation known as the Leo Messi Foundation is committed to helping out the needy in Rosario and various parts of the world with numerous projects.