The Ultimate Expression Of Hatred

[filkertom]

A Green Bay, WI Catholic food pantry will not accept donations of food from Planned Parenthood.

They hate contraception, hate abortions, hate Planned Parenthood, hate sex, hate women, hate poor people so much that they turn away a donation of food for the poor because it's coming from PP. They actually invoke the sacredness and dignity of life

Comments

[mimiheart]

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate on this one.*

“What was told to me was that they simply said we do not want any food donations from you period,” said Lisa Boyce, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.

50 lbs isn't a whole lot when it comes to a food drive. We have on-going ones at the synagogue where I work. They go to two different food banks. One of them comes by every week to pick up food no matter how much is there, one is a combo food/clothing bank, and we just call whenever it looks full. If I were to call the second one and say, "Hey, we need the space, but there's only about 50 lbs. of food and no clothes, can you guys come up here?" Even though we have a GOOD relationship with them, they'd probably say, "LOL, no. Either find another spot for it for right now, or, if possible, bring it down here." It isn't that they don't want it, but the trucks to pick up the food cost money to run, and we aren't exactly down the street. (We are down the street from the first food bank.)

I don't know the layout there in Wisconsin. I don't the people involved. But I can see a food bank not driving out to pick up 50lbs of food, no matter which company or foundation did the drive. (To give an idea of how much that is, that's about five cases of soda -- not a lot when you consider food drives usually have mostly canned food. 50 lbs of dry noodles is another thing entirely.)

That said, if they go to the food bank and drop off the food, unless they're driving a van that says, "PLANNED PARENTHOOD" or announce in some way that the food came from PP, how would they know? What difference does it make? That's what I don't understand about this whole thing. Just go to the food bank and drop it off and be done with it unless you're trying to make a big deal out of it.

*I think that the food bank is being stupid. Someone needs to clarify what is going on, because knee jerk reactions are what they are. Also, I wouldn't put it past someone to say what was said.

[alverant]

The rest of their food drive was about 250 lbs so they turned away 1/5 of their total. That's a pretty good amount and as someone who worked in a food bank I'll tell you that every little bit counts. There were days when 50lbs of food would have made a difference in someone's life and this church failed them because of it.

Also PP offered to drive their donation there, the church didn't have to do anything but accept it. And since donations are tax-deductable they have to be accounted for. And I would think anyone suddenly getting 50lbs of food would ask where it's from just on general principle.

At worse you could say it was a PR stunt to try and show PP weren't monsters and they were willing to work with others for the common good. The church made a choice and now has to deal with that choice.

[hitchkitty]

And I would think anyone suddenly getting 50lbs of food would ask where it's from just on general principle.

I'm guessing there's a general policy among food banks not to accept donations from unidentified parties if there's no easy way to detect tampering. Yes?

[admnaismith]

Of course, these parties identified themselves, which was evidently the problem.

[mimiheart]

Where are you seeing that? I'm seeing that the average food donation that they picked up was 227 lbs, but I'm not seeing the 250 number.

I'm not saying that 50lbs wouldn't be helpful or appreciated, I'm saying that the food banks, at least around here, wouldn't be likely to go out of their way to pick it up. They'd either ask someone to drop it off or find another location to consolidate. (Our synagogue combines with a church or synagogue down the street so that the truck only needs to come up and the volunteers load once if it's not a big load from us and we need space for something, which does happen on occasion. The food/clothing bank in question is interfaith.)

I can't say I understand anything about tax deductions, because I've never taken one for a food drive. And I know that we don't at the synagogue (being tax-exempt and all that.) Do they get them for food drives? They don't really provide the food, they collect it from other sources. I don't know how that all works.

Either way, you drop it off, and get the receipt. THEN they can ask where it came from. It doesn't seem to me that that would require announcing in advance. :/

It's a PR stunt, for sure. Most everything any big company does. If they're planning on announcing it, then it's a PR stunt. And I've already agreed with you with what the church did.

edit for clarity

[sisterofwar]

From the Article:

“We simply called there to offer to drop the food off,” said Boyce. “At that time we were told they did not want our food donations.”

So, it seems they were expecting a pickup, which didn't happen (the article is unclear about why it might have been expected). They called to drop off the food, and were told not to bother, that the pantry didn't want any donations from them. I think part of the concern (at least from what I'm seeing) is that this pantry could then justify turning away people in need, if those people didn't follow the pantry's particular faith, and that this runs counter to their stated commitment and their religious teachings (a fair argument to make, if they are citing their religious teachings as a reason for turning the food away).

I will say that we are only hearing PP's side of the story. I've seen at least one website that states that the food pantry only told PP they couldn't send a truck, and offered other locations that might be able to pick the food up. Sadly, the only place I can find this is a blatantly anti-PP site, so it's a bit hard to consider the source reputable.

[mimiheart]

I've only read this one article, so I don't know.

Since we don't have the pantry's side of the story (which their silence makes me somewhat suspicious, but PP's side makes me raise a few eyebrows, too) I kind of think that neither side is in the right and the truth is somewhere in the middle.