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  • 2017-09-05 (xsd:date)
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  • Did the Red Cross Prevent 400 Hamburgers from Getting to Harvey Victims? (en)
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  • On 4 September 2017, we received a number of e-mails asking whether it was true the Red Cross prevented a woman named Lindsey Scott from distributing 400 hamburgers to evacuees of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. The emails referred to a series of articles that made the claim, with their sole source being a 2 September 2017 Facebook post that appeared on Jamie Mitchell Matuska's page. The message was long, and read in its entirety: Predictably, the claim stirred up anger and rants on social media: The post was vague about what exactly transpired when the writer purportedly landed along with a pilot and 400 hamburgers, presumably at Jack Brooks airport in Beaumont. The post also does not mention exactly when the incident occurred or why they were unable to distribute the food. Blogs and web sites repeated the claim, but only one (IJR) indicated that they had contacted the Red Cross (unsuccessfully) for further information. We contacted the Red Cross for comment and their National Spokesperson, Jenelle Eli, sent us a statement indicating that the incident did indeed occur but that the volunteers who initially refused to serve the burgers acted based on their training around food safety. The Red Cross claimed that the burgers were eventually served: It remains unclear whether the volunteers fully explained their motivations to Scott, whether they failed to cite food safety concerns out of fear of insulting her, or the manner by which they accosted and berated her. We received a response from a forthcoming Matuska later that day, along with contact information for several witnesses to the incident. In reference to questions we posed to Scott, Matuska sent the following reply: She explained that she believed the hamburgers were eventually distributed to evacuees after they were placed into ice chests. A subsequent message from Scott via Matuska in response to the provided Red Cross statement added that obviously [she] didn't cook [the] burgers [herself], indicating they were not home-cooked food donations. (en)
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