Roughly 2,600 meals were donated to two shelters for abused women and children after the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was abruptly canceled on Saturday night due to a gunman opening fire on the floor right above the ballroom.
The shooting took place roughly a half-hour after the dinner formally began, meaning attendees were given a salad appetizer before the room was thrown into chaos. Shortly after the shooter was detained, law enforcement requested everyone to leave the hotel — leaving roughly 2,600 plates of prime Chateaubriand steak and Maine lobster unserved.
The Washington Hilton, where the event is held every year, freeze-dried the meals to give them “longer shelf life,” according to White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang, and the meals were donated to two shelters in the area.
“HUGE thank you to the staff that worked through the night under terrible circumstances,” Jiang wrote in a post on social media.
President Donald Trump said he would work with organizers to reschedule the annual event within the next 30 days, although details on that are not yet clear. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday it is Trump’s intention to attend the rescheduled event, but noted details of a venue — or whether it would be held in the same hotel — have not been decided.
Lawmakers and other attendees of the dinner had raised concerns afterward that security was too lax during the event on Saturday. While ticket-holders were required to go through a security checkpoint with a magnetometer, those who were attending other events in the hotel were permitted to enter the building without additional security screenings.
The alleged gunman did not make it into the ballroom where the president and his top Cabinet officials were. The suspect had been staying in the hotel as a guest, according to local police.
Those details have prompted Trump and other Republicans to endorse the president’s White House ballroom project, which has faced multiple legal challenges delaying its construction. Leavitt said on Monday there is no room currently at the White House to host a rescheduled White House correspondents’ dinner next month.