Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. But a local church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the property holder, SunTrust Bank.
The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely high.”
Burning Farm Produce to keep prices high
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
For those concerned the bank may have been sued by those hungry people and the lawyers they have on retainer:
[104th Congress Public Law 210]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[DOCID: f:publ210.104]
[[Page 110 STAT. 3011]]
Public Law 104-210
104th Congress
An Act
To encourage the donation of food and grocery products to nonprofit
organizations for distribution to needy individuals by giving the Model
Good Samaritan Food Donation Act the full force and effect of
law. <>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. CONVERSION TO PERMANENT LAW OF MODEL GOOD SAMARITAN FOOD
DONATION ACT AND TRANSFER OF THAT ACT TO CHILD NUTRITION ACT
OF 1966.
(a) Conversion to Permanent Law.--Title IV of the National and
Community Service Act of 1990 is amended--
(1) by striking the title heading and sections 401 and 403
(42 U.S.C. 12671 and 12673); and
(2) in section 402 (42 U.S.C. 12672)--
(A) in the section heading, by striking ``model''
and inserting ``bill emerson'';
(B) in subsection (a), by striking ``Good
Samaritan'' and inserting ``Bill Emerson Good
Samaritan'';
(C) in subsection (b)(7), to read as follows:
``(7) Gross negligence.--The term `gross negligence' means
voluntary and conscious conduct (including a failure to act) by
a person who, at the time of the conduct, knew that the conduct
was likely to be harmful to the health or well-being of another
person.'';
(D) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the
following:
``(c) Liability for Damages From Donated Food and
Grocery Products.--
``(1) Liability of person or gleaner.--A person or gleaner shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.
``(2) Liability of nonprofit organization.--A nonprofit
organization shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability
arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of
apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product
that the nonprofit organization received as a donation in good
faith from a person or gleaner for ultimate distribution to
needy individuals.
``(3) Exception.--Paragraphs (1) and (2) shall not apply to
an injury to or death of an ultimate user or recipient of the
food or grocery product that results from an act or omission