MLive recycles Meijer Press Release claiming the corporation fights hunger

Earlier today, MLive posted a short article praising Meijer Inc. for its commitment in “fighting hunger.” The story is problematic both in its sourcing and its unwillingness to question the claim of the retail giant.

First, the MLive story is just a slightly re-worded version of a Meijer Press Release from March 13. Meijer CEO, Hank Meijer, was cited in the story with the exact same statement he made in the Press Release.

Second, the article highlights some of the charitable food donations that Meijer Inc. has provided in recent years, which is essentially what the Meijer Press Release is all about. Lastly,  the MLive story ends with a short video about Meijer’ “Get Gifted Contest” winner and how part of her winnings would go to area food banks. What the MLive story does not tell you is that the video is produced by Meijer.

The other way that this MLive article fails the public is that it doesn’t question the corporation’s claim that it is “fighting hunger.” The article again merely repeats the claims from the Meijer Press Release with its list of donations to food banks.

What the MLive story doesn’t tell us is that Meijer can use any donation it makes as a tax write-off, which will often result in the company actually making money from the donations in tax savings and benefits.

The article does admit in one sentence where many of the donations came from – the  “2011 Holiday Simply Give program raised record donations thanks to customer contributions.” So, Meijer sets up a charity food mechanism, where lots of individuals donate money and then Meijer takes credit for it.

These customer incentive programs and contests that Meijer and many other retailers engage in are really just a PR stunt to get the public to spend their money at these sponsoring businesses. You can’t go anywhere these days without the checkout clerk asking if you want to contribute money to some local charity, which while it might make people feel good about their donation, it undermines the public sectors ability to ask the hard question of why people in West Michigan can’t afford to feed themselves.

This is the crucial question, which MLive and other news agencies rarely ever ask. Why do so many people go hungry in West Michigan when there is so much wealth? If the MLive reporter had asked that question, the article about Meijer’ food charity would be significantly different. The West Michigan-based retailer could not just say they donate x amount of money to food banks each year, since they would now have to honestly address the causes of hunger in this community.