Food Donation Bin for Walmart Workers Reignites Debate Over Low Wages
It makes sense for a company to pay its employees enough money that they can afford to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. But for the second year in a row, a canned food donation bin for employees who are too broke to afford a turkey with all the trimmings has been photographed in a Walmart store.
“Let’s succeed by donating to associates in need!!!” reads a sign taped on a green bin that was set out so the store’s workers could collect food for their fellow employees. The photo of the bin was taken at an Oklahoma City Walmart and posted on the Making Change at Walmart Facebook page. According to Making Change at Walmart, the employee who snapped the photo did not want to make his or her identity public owing to fear of retribution from store management.
“Rather than agree to pay a decent wage or provide full-time hours, Walmart and its owners (the Waltons) continue to earn massive profits while too many of the workers who make the company a success go hungry,” reads the photograph’s caption. The campaign, which seeks to force Walmart “to act responsibly and help rebuild our economy,” has been a part of mobilizing employees for Black Friday strikes and other efforts that seek to improve the wages, health insurance access, and working conditions of the retail behemoth’s workers. The Facebook post drew plenty of anti-Walmart ire.
Dawnne Sulaitis, who has worked for Walmart for 19 years and is the store's dairy department manager, wrote in an email that it was her idea to set the bin in the store's employee area. "Two associates are on medical leave of absence and are unable to work, leaving their families who depend on two incomes down to only one," wrote Sulaitis. "I think that putting a Thanksgiving meal on the table should be the last thing these people have to worry about, and so my next question was whether I could start a food drive at the store to help them out."
According to Sulaitis, associates at the store have donated two bins of food. "I even baked cookies at my home to sell and raise extra money. It’s been great to see everyone’s positive reaction here to helping associates who are facing the unexpected," she wrote.
Last November a similar bin was photographed at a Walmart in Canton, Ohio. At the time, Walmart spokesperson Brooke Buchanan also claimed that the collection box was simply part of the company’s efforts to help associates who were going through serious financial struggles.
“We have a program called Associates in Critical Need Trust. It’s been in place since 2001 and is a way for associates to help one another out in times of need.… If someone is affected by a tornado or the typhoon in the Philippines, they can rely on the Walmart family for additional assistance,” said Buchanan.
Despite Buchanan's explanation, critics questioned why the sign on that bin did not specifically mention that donations would be for tornado or typhoon victims. Slthough Sulaitis' bin is rooted in generosity, being too poor to save for a rainy day or afford a meal, despite working for the big box retailer, is all too common.
Approximately 825,000 Walmart workers, including employees with families, earn less than $25,000 per year—which isn’t much above the federal poverty line of $23,550 for a family of four. How do those folks afford rent, gas, and food? Well, Walmart’s Hunger Games, a report released on Thursday by Eat Drink Politics, details how 88 percent of the people who rely on food banks have annual household incomes of less than $25,000.
Although Walmart made $16 billion in profit last year, too many of its workers are also forced to rely on the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program, which provides food for the poor. Those employees aren’t heading to Trader Joe’s to shop—many of them spend their food stamp dollars right there in the Walmart that employs them. The Eat Drink Politics report cites data from Americans for Tax Fairness, which has “estimated that Walmart benefits from $13.5 billion in food stamp dollars.”
In contrast, The Container Store, which is a significantly smaller company, pays its associates $48,000 per year, and the business turned a tidy profit of $800 million in 2013. Sure, if Walmart started paying a living wage, it might not have billions in profit to hand over to a few executives and members of the Walton family, but the hundreds of thousands of people that the company employs would undoubtedly be better off—and they’d be able to afford a Thanksgiving dinner.
Then again, given that Walmart is one of the retailers that will be open for business on Thanksgiving, perhaps ensuring that its workers are able to sit down with their families and enjoy themselves isn’t its priority.
Related stories on TakePart:
• Walmart Wants to Make Food More Sustainable—but Don't Confuse a Pledge With Practice
• Forget the President—'The Daily Show' Makes a Better Case for Raising the Minimum Wage
• This Vending Machine Brings Grocery Basics Back to Food Deserts
Original article from TakePart
