By Meadow Clark
Kansas City, Missouri Health Department made a national splash when their staff literally poured bleach on food intended for homeless people earlier this month. A coalition of friends called Free Hot Soup (FHS) Kansas City had formed picnic-style food gatherings to provide hot meals for homeless people, and all went according to plan until officials trashed the food and doused it in bleach to render it inedible.
The Washington Post reported:
“It looked ugly Sunday,” the Star reported last week. “Home-cooked chili, stacks of foil-wrapped sandwiches, vats of soup and other food prepared by volunteers with Free Hot Soup Kansas City were dumped in bags and soaked in bleach to make sure no one went back to try to recover it.”
–“Everybody was ready to stand up for themselves,” Nellie McCool, a volunteer with Free Hot Soup Kansas City, told the Star. “We’re prepared to face the law.”
Free Hot Soup has even stripped the gathering point addresses from its group listings perhaps to keep local government from ambushing them again.
Surprisingly, all ends of the political spectrum were unified in an outcry against this affront on rights and helping others.
To my friends in Kansas City, open your windows up wide and yell “I am mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” https://t.co/QzEKMA7pMX
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) November 16, 2018
Does it really make safety sense to bleach food that might accidentally go back into someone’s mouth? Bleach, by the way, should never go into the ground for the same reasons it shouldn’t be ingested.
The Destruction of Food Should Be Left Behind in History…
I just want to point out that all throughout history, it was a recurring theme for commanders to destroy the food or crops of a people they wanted to subdue and control. Sowing tares in wheat fields. Burning crops with salt.
Regardless of what one thinks of the homeless problem in America or what we should do about it, here are three cold hard facts:
- Homelessness is a growing problem that includes a variety of people from different walks of life
- The government is not helping and is likely hurting the problem. Health departments everywhere have been cracking down on attempts to allow access to food
- People die in extreme weather without shelter and nourishment
These three things happen whether we want them to or not. These things happen whether we have the perfect solution or not.
KCTV5 reported:
The Kansas City, Missouri Health Department has said that it will no longer use bleach in situations similar to the one that happened recently with a group called Free Hot Soup.
The Health Department tweeted on Saturday, “Given recent events regarding ‘Free Hot Soup,’ the Health Department has reviewed its food inspection practices. Please read our Updated FAQ to learn more.”
The KCHD released a PDF in response to the resident backlash of footage showing bleach poured on food for homeless people.
In response to the question, “Why did the Health Department pour bleach on food for the homeless?” KCHD wrote:
While the use of bleach may be alarming, it is a common practice used by public health departments throughout the country when responding to direct threats to public health from potentially contaminated food. The inspector at one location was told food would be re-served after being placed in trash bags, therefore the inspector had to use bleach to ensure the food in question would not be served
In response to residents’ concerns, The Health Department has reviewed its food disposal practices during inspections. In the future, inspectors will no longer use bleach in these types of situations.
“I am glad the use of bleach has been discontinued. Hopefully, there will be no more need for our union’s members to be called to watch the destruction of food meant for those that have nothing,” Tweeted Brad Lemon, president of the Kansas City, Missouri Fraternal Order of Police.
The PDF goes on to paint the health department as the defenders of the homeless while nearly suggesting that there was some harm intended toward homeless people by the people who were feeding them. One line, in particular, stands out. It’s in reference to homeless people eating discarded food anyway:
“Individuals experiencing homelessness also often lack access to medical care, a nearby bathroom, a bed to rest in, or a change of clothes – all things that individuals experiencing food poisoning would hope to have.”
But I guess bleach poisoning is okay? Starvation is preferable?
The health department was demanding permits for the passing out of food.
FHS Kansas City responded to the health department by pointing out that first, they are not a charitable organization and that the health department didn’t even get the group right. FHS says they are a picnic gathering of friends from Facebook. They make the point that the government doesn’t go around bleaching meals at family reunions, company picnics, and the like. So why should it destroy food at this gathering?
“‘Free Hot Soup’ is not a charitable group. It is a reference to a handful of closed Facebook communities. Your permits and oversight are not applicable. Everyone in attendance at our picnics are individuals engaging with our personal friends, and you infringed on our freedom of association and freedom of expression by requiring a permit for our activities with them.”
Read the rest of the FHS response HERE.
Here’s the problem with their statement…
Just because the health department will no longer use bleach does not mean it will stop destroying perfectly good food intended for hungry people. It will just find a different way to keep individuals from helping others.
And by now you’ve seen countless stories of local code enforcers preventing people and church groups from feeding the homeless.
In 2016, raw footage of the government throwing away new, fresh produce in New York just because it wasn’t displayed “properly” produced a fever pitch among residents who saw it for what it was: senseless, bureaucratic destruction of food. It kind of makes all those “food waste” reduction campaigns rendered meaningless.
These stories and stories of peaceful farmers having their raw milk destroyed or dumped are examples of destroying valuable resources that would allow for independence from government. In Australia, raw milk sold for soap making is spiked with a bitter, gag-inducing agent just to make sure that no one can use it for nourishment.
Readers who are interested in the topic of food freedom may enjoy a book by David Gumpert called: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights: The Escalating Battle Over Who Decides What We Eat.
This is a denial of human rights.
Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions says:
It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.
This GC code is actually in reference to a military practice called “scorched earth.” It’s not a punitive destruction of food, but a tactical move by an occupying force to make sure the enemy cannot use resources when moving forward or retreating.
For such an appropriate description coming from a code intended to stop inhumane war practices, one must ask themselves…
Who is the enemy here?
And why are the citizen-provided resources being systematically destroyed?
The only way to end this kind of atrocity is to name names.
‘Someone’ organized this.
Many other ‘Someones’ ‘enforced’ this.
Barking at a faceless entity gets zero results.
Publicizing the names and faces responsible for such evil is the only way to respond.
And the names should be sent far and wide.
the health department is one of the biggest threats to health.fight back!!
…..and yet people think our ‘Khaki Heroes’ – who illegally murder innocents in foreign countries over fraudulent wars won’t kill American citizens?
Since they were “just following orders” – just like these cops. MANY OF WHOM ARE EX-‘KHAKI HEROES’.
WOW! So the health department decided to be buzzards over a picnic with friends. I’m almost sure that those who were cooking the picnic lunch are well aware of the “food safety rules”. They are easily found on the internet. We have radio stations here that ALWAYS have a long segment (a PSA so to speak) from the health department or food safety experts every year at this time. Food safety doesn’t change throughout the year. What applies during the holiday season applies to the rest of the year. I wish the radio stations would have them during the summer, too!!
There are folks who are going to have to leave the country on a permanent basis. They are known as Libs or Communists. The time is at hand.
HOW MANY HOURS DO I HAVE TO SAY WHAT ALL NEEDS TO BE SAID ABOUT THE EVIL OF THIS ACT, AND THE LOUSY EXCUSES FROM THESE SO CALLED HUMANS!! WHEN WE READ THIS IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT KANSAS CITY WOULD DO SOMETHING SOOO CRUEL AND DOWN RIGHT EVIL!! NAMES NEED TO BE GOTTEN AS TO WHO SANCTIONED THIS, AND WHO ALL WENT ALONG WITH THIS!! THEY ALL SHOULD BE IN JAIL AND PROSECUTED!! AND DON’T USE THE LAME EXCUSE THAT SOMETHING WAS BAD THAT THEY WERE GONNA SERVE, WE ARE NOT BUYING THAT!! THEY DESTROYED EVEN FOOD THAT WASN’T BAD AND THEY KNEW IT! PEOPLE NEED TO STAND UP TO THIS KIND OF INHUMANE BEHAVIOR!
HEAVY FINES TOO, AND JAIL TIME FOR SURE!!
Here in Toronto we already have 3 classes of fruits (& vegetables) in our stores:
Organic $$$$$
Regular $$$
&
racks of “reduced”, $, the stuff that isn’t pretty enough for the Regular displays.
Whenever we can we buy “reduced”, it’s what we can afford, & our purchase keeps it out of city compost or the landfill.
In a Texas town, it is illegal to feed the homeless unless you have a permit and the city would not issue one. SO the people got together and set up tables and gave away food and clothes. The Gestapo showed up, a number of men went to their trucks and slung their AR 15 and went back to helping, the Gestapo left.
I assume the reason behind the destruction of the food was that the government agency involved was concerned it could potentially be contaminated and cause illness – however silly that may seem at first glance. The fact is that sometimes even the most well-intentioned people preparing or storing food don’t do it in a safe manner (Remember the news story in 2015 about the illnesses and death caused when a church member made potato salad for a church potluck in Ohio using improperly home-canned potatoes?) – and occasionally, a wicked person will deliberately contaminate food or medicines (Remember the news story recently about the person in Australia who put broken needles in strawberries?). What I’m wondering is why the folks with the Free Hot Soup group didn’t just work with an established, permitted charity or food bank to provide the food to the homeless?
Okay, trying this again…third times a charm, right? (I keep getting an error message trying to reply to Zabeth)
I have worked in food service and health care my entire life. As far as FHS trying to work with an ‘established’ group, there are so many requirements and permits whether trying to start your own charitable cause, or ‘linking with’ an established charity, it is ridiculous. FHS is likely aware of all the ‘requirements’ and thought they had found a loophole (God bless them for trying!) These same ‘rules and requirements’ have impacted an annual event I help run, which started out as a potluck. As the group has grown larger, we have had to look at where we source our food from, as well as permits, to protect ourselves legally. And it is only a FB group. Wait until they start regulating neighborhood get togethers and family reunions.
Hi Grammyprepper. It sounds like the solution may be to lobby for less burdensome regulations, or perhaps for a new one that would allow people to partake of food offered by groups that have not obtained a special permit, provided those people sign a waiver stating they will not hold the government responsible if they should become ill or get injured from eating that food.
“The whole good cop/bad cop question can be disposed of much more decisively. We need not enumerate what proportion of cops appears to be good or listen to someone’s anecdote about his Uncle Charlie, an allegedly good cop. We need only consider the following: (1) a cop’s job is to enforce the laws, all of them; (2) many of the laws are manifestly unjust, and some are even cruel and wicked; (3) therefore every cop has agreed to act as an enforcer for laws that are manifestly unjust or even cruel and wicked. There are no good cops.” ~Robert Higgs
On the bus today, I started to give someone a dollar because they didn’t have bus fare and the bus driver said its illegal nowdays. she said they have cameras all over the bus and we aren’t allowed to do that. (Help others). Its called pan-handling and its illegal. Why would they do this? Make it illegal to help poor people? Obviously, for the same reason the government does the other despicable things they do– they want us dead! And the sooner, the better! (think of the toxic chemicals is sodas, for just one example– people raised hell because the Pepsi company was putting aspartame in sodas (even in regular sodas– not just diet sodas!) so the Pepsi company stopped doing it. However, shortly thereafter, they started putting it in sodas again! why? I’m sure they were paid by the government to do it. It IS poisonous! I noticed the ill effects almost immediately after drinking sodas and when I looked up the ingredients– sure enough! and that’s just one example!! they got the Nazis books on genocide. They want us dead. Period! And read about cell phones — radiation!! Unbelievable!! Read Renee Parson articles on this !!
The people of Kansas City Missouri, and other towns, can take to referendums and other legal means and take away the power of the city or city agencies to create,enforce, or regulate certain actions. Fairbanks Alaska residents just did that with home heating because of the city’s practices against residents during normal heating needs.
It’s amazing how the governments of liberal cities like Seattle and Los Angeles give out all kinds of free stuff to homeless people, and are then suprised when more homeless people show up.