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Kansas City Health Department is facing backlash after pouring bleach on meals intended to feed the homeless according to The Kansas City Star.

A local organization Free Hot Soup KC planned to give away free meals that included home-made chili, foil-wrapped sandwiches, and soup at parks across Kansas City on Nov. 5. Health officials took away the meals citing the group didn’t have a permit and was putting the public at risk.

Health Department director Rex Archer said, “E. coli or salmonella or listeria can grow in the food. And then you give that to homeless people who are more vulnerable — they will end up in the ER and even die from that exposure.”

The city dumped the meals in bags and soaked them in bleach ensure no one would go back and eat the food. Kansas City Health officials said they were only trying to protect the public with this decision.

“There is no question that feeding the homeless is critical,” Archer said. “There are 43 organizations (excluding Free Hot Soup KC) that have permits and do it in a safe way.”

Volunteers with the Free Hot Soup KC were highly upset over the incident, however, and said the city’s raid was another measure to disrupt their potluck dinners to feed the homeless.

“It’s about the criminalization of people who are homeless and the people who support them,” Eric Garbison of the Cherith Brook Catholic Worker House told The Kansas City Star.

Tara McGaw, 27, who started the Free Soup gatherings in Belton, Mo., said the recent incident has left people feeling scared.

“We’re not an establishment,” she said. “We’re not a not-for-profit. We’re just friends trying to help people on the side.”

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