Portland police try to stop activists from taking discarded food from store garbage

(FEBRUARY 22, 2021) The winter weather in Portland last week was unusual. There was significant snow and ice. This caused many people and businesses to lose power. Some people did not have electricity for days.

One business that lost power was the Fred Meyer supermarket in the Hollywood neighborhood of Northeast Portland. After a long time without power, employees were required to throw away some food because it had no refrigeration.

Soon a group of activists began to take the food from the garbage. They argued that the food was still good. Some people wanted food for themselves. Others wanted food to share with people who were homeless or in shelters.

The store said it normally donates surplus food to nonprofit organizations. However, widespread problems with power, internet, and roads prevented those organizations from picking up the surplus food in time. The store believed the food had spoiled and was unsafe to eat.

“Unfortunately, due to loss of power at this store, some perishable food was no longer safe for donation to local hunger relief agencies,” the company wrote. “Our store team became concerned that area residents would consume the food and risk food borne illness, and they engaged local law enforcement out of an abundance of caution. We apologize for the confusion.”

So the store called the police. When the police arrived, there were about 15-20 people in the parking lot arguing with employees. About 12 police officers were present. No one was arrested or injured, but the police asked the activists to leave.

After about one hour, the police left. Then some activists returned to take more food from the garbage. The store called the police again. However, the police decided not to return because there was no imminent threat to life or threat of serious injury.

Activists spent hours taking containers of dairy products, meat, and frozen foods. They argued that the cold temperatures prevented the foods from spoiling. A representative of the group said much of the food went to community refrigerators around the city.

“The people who were there weren’t there for selfish reasons — they were there to get food to distribute to hungry people around the city,” said Juniper Simonis, an activist and researcher who observed the situation. “There are mutual aid groups that have been helping feed people at warming centers because the city doesn’t have enough resources to feed them.”