Whole Foods catches heat for giving free meals to National Guard in Baltimore

(Image credit: Facebook.com/Whole Foods Market Harbor East)

last updated 29 April 2015

Health food giant Whole Foods found itself plunged into controversy this week when one of its Baltimore stores, Whole Foods Market Harbor East, made a Facebook post about giving free meals to the National Guard troops patrolling the city. The post was soon noticed and widely shared on social media, where reception was mostly frosty:

Following the backlash, a spokesperson for Whole Foods said the store is "providing food and water to children across our city by partnering with rec centers and community organizations, and have been doing so in parallel with providing food and water to first responders." On Twitter, @WholeFoods responded individually to dozens of protesters to explain that it has "teamed up with [the Parks and Rec department] for ongoing lunch and snack donations to the kids in Baltimore."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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