Several news articles have reported a video of Whole Foods employees laughing as a presumably homeless man helped himself to food at the hotbar, at times grabbing food with his bare hands, licking his fingers, and using the ladles to put food into personal receptacles that he had with him. There are many atrocious aspects of this event that I wish to address, in order of most severe to least.
- Food Safety – As someone who has spent days in a hospital with food poisoning, I can definitively attest that the primary concern is food safety for the customers at the store. I quiver with nausea at the thought of what contamination occurred during his sampling of the food. A homeless person does not have access to the facilities necessary to maintain adequate hygiene in general, so they are likely to have contaminants that are even more dangerous than the average customer who maintains a more effective level of personal hygiene. That said, any person who dares to touch the food or handle the utensils in any manner that results in an issue with the food safety should be escorted from the premises immediately and forbidden from returning.
- Mocking the homeless – almost as difficult to stomach as the introduction of filth into the food is the laughter at the expense of a suffering human. While I find his grazing disgusting, I also find his predicament a tragic condition. My entire life, I have always known that food and shelter are available for me. I cannot imagine how painful suffering hunger and exposure can be, so mocking those who deal with it is an unconscionable act. These employees should be severely reprimanded for this appalling behavior.
- Inaction by the employees and management – According to some reports, the employees are forbidden from addressing the issue immediately. The procedure apparently is to allow the act to proceed, then discard the tainted food later. Given that there is such a cavalier attitude by the Whole Foods leadership regarding their food, it would seem they would find a way to make this food accessible to those who need it without endangering customers who assume they are purchasing untainted food.
My hope is that this issue will result in a greater emphasis on food safety by Whole Foods and greater efforts to contribute food to those who need it.