Arizona charity turns down Wal-Mart donation

Friday, November 23, 2012

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The head of a Tucson Catholic charity is saying no to a $2,000 donation from Wal-Mart.

Brian Flagg oversees Casa Maria Free Kitchen. He tells the Arizona Daily Star (http://bit.ly/RW0Wks) that he turned down the money because of the company's effect on the community's small businesses and its low wages. He says he considers the donation "blood money."

Flagg says this is the first time Casa Maria has turned down a donation.

When Wal-Mart opened its newest Tucson store last month, it noted that several charities would receive a combined $15,000 from the company as part of the celebration. Casa Maria was among the charities listed.

Wal-Mart said in a statement that its pay and benefits typically meet or exceed what's offered by its competitors and that the company has donated more than $345,000 to Tucson organizations since 2009.

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Graceful 5 months, 4 weeks ago

Left wing ideology is destroying the church and now charitable organizations.

bluesfan13 5 months, 4 weeks ago

How in the heck to you get that this is "left wing ideology" at work here? It's left wing to stand behind your beliefs and refuse money from a source that you don't agree with?

jcguy25 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Blues - there's no point trying to understand it. She posts on about every article that it's the left's fault, our nation is in decline, doom and gloom is coming, blah , blah, blah

bluesfan13 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Graceful is a man, not a woman. He at times has claimed to be a lawyer (or at least been to law school and a constitutional scholar).

bluesfan13 5 months, 3 weeks ago

How do you go from "affecting the community's small businesses" to "taking advantage of the poor"? Wal-Mart encourages many things; lowering wages, and imports from China are among them. That is not "Occupy Wall Street mantra"; those facts have been around much longer than those fools.

JCLifer 5 months, 3 weeks ago

47 million on food stamps and growing every day...

TickledPink 5 months, 3 weeks ago

And how many of those millions work at Walmart? I applaud this charity for not taking their money. How many mom & pop stores did Walmart put out of business when they moved in? Better wages? Better than what? Every single local store I know pays an entry level employee better than Walmart. Keep praying to your god "Capitalism". The rest of us will continue working on making this a better place for our children.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you went out today for Small Business Saturday? Lots of talk about supporting our community, but not much action from the majority.

connor 5 months, 3 weeks ago

You mean those 99% women's clothing stores and nic nac shops up town? That kind of local business?

I dropped by Boggs Creek this morning does that count as local?

So your really going to bash on Wal-Mart for paying unskilled labor lower than average starting wage (but always at least minimum) and then claim to be for the common person or the poor? Do you have any idea what even a minimal increase in food costs to cover higher wages would do to your average poor family on assistance or not in the Central Missouri area? At the prices Wal-Mart charges compared to other smaller chains or independent local stores I doubt Wal-Mart is pocketing much profit off their food sales. Not to mention Wal-Mart is open 24 hours. Perfect for those non-traditional shoppers who have trouble making scheduled appearances at places like voting sites and the like. I mean Wal-Mart seems to cater particularly to the under privileged, the poor and such and they can swipe their EPT cards at 12:01 AM and not show an ID.

Why do you Liberals and Unionists hate the poor so much?

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