Wal-Mart ends food donations to charity

[arikara]

More reason not to shop at the evil empire. This is yesterdays, I guess too late to make LBN

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the nation's largest food retailer, said Thursday it will no longer donate nearly-expired or expired food to local groups feeding the hungry.

Instead, that food will be thrown away, a move several Sacramento charities consider wasteful.

Olan James, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the policy, which applies to all 1,224 Wal-Marts, 1,929 Supercenters and 558 Sam's Clubs, is an attempt to protect the corporation from liability in case someone who eats the donated food gets sick.

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He said Wal-Mart's concerns about liability seem misplaced in light of the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, a federal law passed in 1996 offering food donors wide-ranging protections from civil lawsuits or criminal prosecution. The law states that donors can be held liable only in instances of "gross negligence."

"Lord, we get millions and millions of pounds from Raley's and Bel-Air and Albertson's, and they don't have a problem understanding the law," Brown said. "Why don't Wal-Mart and Sam's Club understand the law?"

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http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14043050p-14874591c.html

Here's the bugmenot.com's login info if you want to read the whole story...

Username: ididntknow
Password: whattodo

[HereSince1628]

1. It's the policy of most grocery chains. I've watched hundreds of loaves

of bread, and hundreds of pounds of meat go into compacters.

[kiraboo]

2. And, unfortunately, it's a sound policy.

I'd do the same in this litigious society. As we all know, no good deed goes unpunished. Of course one could argue that such a megabusiness could afford to settle any lawsuit, but that could set a precedent which would endanger smaller grocery chains and privately owned businesses. Grrr, it makes me so mad.

[arikara]

4. No, I have to disagree there...

its not really a sound policy at all. There is a good Samaritan act in place already to protect them. Also the food banks go through all the food and throw out any that's in any way questionable as they are the ones that are ultimately liable if someone gets sick. They are trained and don't take chances.

If walmart is going to simply throw out day old bread, then why not at least give it to their underpaid workers who can't even afford lunch?

[kiraboo]

8. I wasn't aware that there was protection against lawsuit.

I thought the Good Samaritan law applied only to medical aid provided in time of emergency. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

[depakid]

3. Doesn't surprise me

Walmart is one of the largest, subsidized generators of waste in America. For all its cheap, Chinese goods- it encourages incredible inefficiencies across the entire economy. If you wanted to design the stupidest, most unsustainable parasite and unleash it on the macroeconomy, what would it look like?

The answer, of course- is Walmart.

[JPZenger]

5. Big Difference between meat and canned goods

I can understand a grocery store not giving away older meat for liability reasons. However, if a can of corn has passed its expiration date, it won't kill someone if it is eaten a few months later. There is plenty of time for canned goods and dry boxed goods to be eaten after their official expiration date. Of course, the expiration date is only a deadline for sale, not consumption. I would imagine most food distributed by food banks gets consumed quickly. Or, they could contribute the food to a soup kitchen, which will use it quickly.

[depakid]

6. The Oregon Food bank gets meat

Through its fresh alliance program.

http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/make_a_difference/volunteer/FreshAlliance.html

So I don't think the liability issues for meat, dairy and produce are an excuse for Walmart-

They're just really bad corporate citizens.

[freesqueeze]

7. However, Walmart Continues Supporting the Working Poor...

EVERY PAYDAY!

[Broken_Hero]

9. hmm...

When I worked for Carr's safeway in Alaska back in the mid 90's, I worked in the deli, and the bakery and we did donate a lot of food to the Salvation Army, which ran the homeless shelter and the soup kitches. The majors that ran the salvation army, gave us such a hard time about the food that we were giving them, and started a beef with our then manager Rob S. made the deli/bakery/produce no longer donate food to the salvation army any more...we were told to dump everything in the trash, and thats what we did....I don't know if its a current store policy now, but in 97 it was for our little store in SE Alaska...

In that experience, i know the food was good, the bread, and left overs from our deli and oriental express were good when we gave it to them...now, i don't know if the salvation army sat on it for five days before serving it, but it was the Majors fault that the store no longer donated....So, its just not walmart....