Red Cross Delivers Trashbag Of Broken Hamburgers To Sandy Victims

[Earth_First]

The Red Cross has been roundly criticized for ineffectively using the hundreds of millions of dollars in donations they've received to help victims of Hurricane Sandy. If one were to distill the organization's disconnection from the people they're serving into a single image, it might look like a trash bag full of cooked, broken hamburgers.

On Monday, volunteers at the makeshift relief center on Beach 96th Street said a Red Cross vehicle dropped off a trashbag of cooked burgers, and another trashbag full of buns. "They told us that if we didn't take them, they were going to throw them out, so we handed out as many as we could," said Matt Calender, one of the organizers of the relief effort on 96th Street. "But this is the only time the Red Cross has dropped anything off to us—we already have hot food, why are they just arbitrarily dropping off hot food? With all their resources, isn't there a safer, cleaner way of doing this? The hamburgers were warm, who knows how that's affecting the plastic."

The Red Cross provided blankets to the relief center, which is now called Smallwater, several weeks ago, but volunteers had to pick them up at a distribution site. That has been the extent of the relationship between the giant, bureaucratic symbol of international relief and the makeshift volunteer hub. .

Sam Kille, the regional communications director for the Red Cross, says that the volunteers who dropped the hamburgers off probably should have called first, but that they were "trying to do something good."

http://gothamist.com/2012/12/05/red_cross_drops_off_trashbag_of_ham.php

Speechless.

[msongs]

1. indignant relief workers should have refused the burgers/buns, that'll teach the RC nt

[Earth_First]

4. I love the compassion you elicit here...

Aid agencies dropping off food in trashbags, and the 'indignant' relief workers being upset about it.

The nerve of "those people"

[Stuart G]

2. This is not the first time that the Red Cross looks like fools...

and it won't be the last...

[txwhitedove]

3. No faith in Red Cross after experience in other hurricanes.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Most trash bags aren't food grade plastic.

As for piling hamburgers into a soft container like that, not a good move. The buns were probably fine.
But really the question is, why did they do it at all?

[pipoman]

7. The bag they pictured appears to be a food grade "bun bag"..

if so, they are safe for use with hot food.



Certainly doesn't look too appetizing however...

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Ah, so it wasn't a "trash bag."

At least it was a food grade bag. That's not much, but it's better than saying they were in a trash bag. Still scratching my head over putting still-warm patties willy-nilly in a big bag like that.

[pipoman]

11. The article says

they were in a food grade bag inside a black trash bag.

[DinahMoeHum]

6. Now you know why I won't give $ to the Red Cross.

I give funds for relief to other organizations, like Americares. Or now, to Occupy Sandy.

Later on, for long-term solutions (such as building new housing) it will be Habitat for Humanity.

[OldDem2012]

8. I haven't donated money to the Red Cross since their scandal following 911....

...A large portion of the $540+ million donated to the Red Cross in the immediate aftermath of 911 went not to the survivors or family members of those killed, but to other Red Cross operations. This was basically a "bait-and-switch" operation.

There have been other scandals involving tainted blood supplies, throwing out blood collected for disasters that was never used, and inappropriate use of funds by the agency's executive leadership.

[Marrah_G]

13. +1

[Dorian Gray]

9. Occupy Sandy

has been on the streets and in the trenches with providing aid to hurricane survivors. They've been amazing!

Red Cross and FEMA, not so much.

But, I will say, smaller organziations can focus on individual places while their net has to be widespread.

I know their (Red Cross) workers mean well. But local churches, restaurants, and the like have been much more successful at organizing and expediting aid services in particular neighborhoods here in NYC. And in NJ, too.

[bhikkhu]

12. When I was younger, someone gave me a big bag of broken tofu burgers

from where he worked (the place that made them), and they were going to be thrown out. Back then, the food budget was pretty tight, and those tofu burgers tasted like heaven - not one went to waste!

Now, if I were going to donate something myself and had the means, I'd make it whatever kind of good whole fresh food that was most desired. If I didn't have much means, however, and did have a big bag of good but unsaleable food, I'd donate that and hope that it was appreciated.

[cthulu2016]

14. Is this entire thread a fucking Joke?

Somebody dropped off some bags of food that was going to be thrown away, with the understanding that the recipient was free to make use of it, or throw it away. Probably not ideal protocol, but not any sort of actual story worth repeating, let alone printing.

The OP is an obvious joke -- "speechless"?? C'mon... nobody on Earth is that trivial and stupid. It's a joke -- but there seem to be people falling for it as if it was something a sane person could find the energy to be distressed about.

[wtmusic]

15. No kidding. Next we'll hear how the ciabatta for the paninis was dry.

Someone, anyone step up to the plate and start a "Gourmet for the Homeless" org.