Whole Foods cancels fundraiser for homeless
September 10, 2008 at 1:53 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsWhat a difference a few hours makes.
The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance has called off its boycott of Whole Foods, according to another e-mail the neighborhood group sent to members. The grocery store agreed to cancel the fundraiser that sparked the boycott. (Five percent of today’s sales would have benefited the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.)
From the e-mail:
MIDTOWN PONCE SECURITY ALLIANCE – Whole Foods calls off fundraiser
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We have confirmed that Whole Foods has suspended its plans to raise funds for the Metro Task Force for the “Homeless,” so we have called off the boycott. Due to overwhelming response from the community, they are not going ahead with the plan. It has become clear to Whole Foods that Peachtree Pine, operated by the Metro Task Force for the “Homeless,” generates substantial opposition from the surrounding community because of all the crime radiating from that building at Peachtree & Pine.
On the one hand we should not hold Whole Foods responsible because the Task Force presentation said the money would be used to buy bicycles for homeless people to get to and from work. The Task Force is slick, and can be stealthy in their public relations practices. It probably sounded like a great idea, but Whole Foods didn’t know what a nuisance and dangerous proposition that Peachtree/Pine presents to the surrounding community.
On the other hand, we had to act fast because we only became aware of this plan at 9am this morning – an hour after its launch. After verification and a flurry of phone calls, we made the decision to call for a short-notice community response. Had we known about this ahead of time, we would have attempted to derail the plan in the background before sounding an alarm to the community.
It so happens that we have been evaluating neighborhood-friendlier alternatives to address the homeless issue in Atlanta, but we are still working on this and will share our findings at a later date.
In the meantime, we wish thank those of you who responded by calling Whole Foods, and especially to Whole Foods for listening to their stakeholders. Therefore, we have called off the boycott of Whole Foods.
- Your Neighbors at the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance
September 10th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
well I was gonna go buy some ridiculously overpriced flowers tonight at WF to help compensate for the boycott but now I’ll think just donate to Peachtree Pine instead.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I sure am glad we have the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance looking out for us. Those pesky homeless shelters cause so much trouble! It is such a better approach to simply scatter the homeless outside the city limits. This way we can make our city appear wonderful by tearing down all that ugly affordable housing, avoid having to pay a livable wage, let developers rake in more profits, bring in more property taxes, avoid having to see anything that makes us or tourists uncomfortable, all while reducing the statistical number of homeless! Genius!
Forget the root causes, just get ‘em outta here!
Thanks Shirley!
Thanks Debi!
Thanks Kwanza!
You guys rock!
Ut Oh..gotta run…there’s a homeless person approaching…don’t make eye contact… after all I just put 25 cents in the new Shirley Franklin change meter..I thought that would get rid of him!
September 11th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I’m betting that you two don’t live near Peachtree Pine.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
It is sad that folks like “Loft Guy” and “Sara Ashes” don’t take as much time to educate themselves as they do ignorant attacks on the folks who actually live near the shelter. We choose to live in a diverse neighborhood and the vast majority of us are liberals. That being said, this particular group has demonstrated that not only is it contemptuous of its neighbors, it is far more interested in political activism and self-aggrandizing than in actually helping anyone.
Many of the prostitutes, drug dealers and prostitutes who are arrested in our neighborhood give this shelter as their address. This is because this shelter, as opposed to legitimate shelters, has no policies as to who can stay there. As a result, it is the home base for the dangerous criminals who roam through our streets. If any of the above posters really gave a crap about the homeless, they would know how groups like the “Task Force” harm the cause of the homeless and wee work with several legitimate homeless groups that agree with us.
Bob Cramer, one of the executives of this group had the audacity to label the Midtown community racist for daring to oppose their programs that have proven to be destructive to the neighborhood and counter-productive to the needs of the homeless. Of course, Bob doesn’t mention that he lives in a lily white neighborhood far from Midtown and that the company of which he is the CEO is in a sterile and expensive office complex with private security. Like the rest of the “Task Force”, Bob wants to use our neighborhood as the petri dish for his social experiments, yet doesn’t want to live or have his business near it. Neither do we. I won’t sink to his level and call him a racist for sequestering yourself from minorities except for an occasional visit to your warehouse for criminals.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Unlike most Midtown residents, I have spent the night in homeless shelters before (and not as a volunteer). I believe in homeless shelters and I want them in my community because I think we should take ownership of our whole community and not just those who live in the next house.
However, I am in strong opposition to the Pine Street Shelter. I know many guys who have stayed there such as David, an eight year Navy veteran who was working with me. Each night in the Pine Street shelter he would be robbed of his money or his shoes or something. Another guy who worked with me got lice there. The United Mission Shelter over on Mills St. sends men to the Pine Street Shelter as punishment for not behaving well. Every man at other shelters know not to go to the Pine Street Shelter if you are trying to get back on your feet because the Pine Street Shelter is a place for drug deals and hanging out and not escaping homelessness.
So, let’s have a homeless shelter in Midtown. But, let’s have one that is well run and actually helps people get off the streets. The pine street shelter as currently run in no way provides this service. Because of this, I support the MPSA in leading a drive against this fundraiser because a donation to the Pine Street shelter enables bad things just as much as giving money to panhandlers.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hello.
I looked at your site thoroughly after the AJC article regarding your boycott of Whole Foods due to their benefit for the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
I would like to add the criminal offense of slander to your watchdog agenda. The 43 pages of letters sent to City Council provoked by your tactics and the utter immature move of threatening a business(Whole Foods) that is bringing in revenue for the city and increasing our property value by simply existing in our neighborhood of Midtown is not only detrimental to an already vulnerable population, but is detrimental to the reputation of this community.
It is websites and language from organizations such as yours that gives well respected neighborhoods, such as OURS the not in my back yard stigma. I applaud the continued support that this organization has for the Gateway Center and Atlanta Union Mission for they are doing such good work. But, I whole heartedly believe that if the Mission or the Gateway was located in the district of Midtown this organization would have the same response. Let me remind you that there are a slew of other homeless service providers that attract “vagrants and street cats” to the Midtown area. None of which are mentioned in your safety reports? Why the utter avoidance of Crossroads Ministries or Midtown Assistance Center? Many people experiencing Homelessness receive Social Security Benefits. There is a SSI office in Midtown. Most churches in the area offer some sort of service including some that just “feed” the individuals experiencing homelessness and let them go on their way. Why not viciously slander the churches for not being accountable for the actions of these individuals once they leave the doors of the place of worship?
The vicious and rabid attacks on the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless not only have a not in my back yard aura about them. They are lined with personal gain that your organization’s members stand to receive as a result of the development of the neighborhood. This is not an attempt to return the dignity to those who(as you all so gracefully put it) are “warehoused” by the Task Force. So spare me the forced compassion. It is a complete and tactful attack on their dignity of fellow brothers and sisters for personal gain.
Is it not enough to be the catalyst of the stripping of almost $300,000 dollars from an organization that houses women and children, picks people up from under bridges and takes them in from the freezing street, and advocates from the basic human dignity that all of us deserve? Obviously not.
You call for the CLOSING of the Task Force!! Friends, this would be the beginning of the downfall of our beloved community. If we forced 600 to 1,000 brothers and sisters in humanity into the streets of Midtown the sense of desperation would be greater than most this city has seen. When people are thrust into a desperate situation, people act desperately. I cannot fathom what 600-1,000 acts of desperation entail.
So I tell your organization to STOP misrepresenting the good nature of the citizens of Midtown. We are not the victim of a broken system as you are leading people to believe. We are the beneficiaries!! We are not hurting as the people experiencing homelessness are hurting because someone loudly asked us for money. We are not living in fear of the vagrants of the night. That claim is outrageous. We have one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the Southeast with a park comparable to Central Park in NYC! We have a thriving business and entertainment community. We enjoy a classy nightlife and have well respected organizations of faith. Our community is blessed with this and so much more. If we continue to forget our good fortune we are potentially jeopardizing it along with our good nature. Let us use our good fortune as a model for other districts and not call for the closing of Task Force. If the Task Force’s operations are not adequately serving the homeless as you say, then let us FUND them adequately so they can maximize their efforts and become the vision that they have on their website(www.homelesstaskforce.org)! Let us build up our neighbor not shun them from existence.