As power outages continued in Portland, Oregon, following several winter storms, local police descended on a grocery store to prevent people from handing out piles of freshly thrown food to those in need.
Heavy storms have hit the region with ice and snow in the past week, disrupting hundreds of thousands of buildings and homes.
Employees of a leaked Fred Meyer store on Tuesday filled two large dumpsters along the side of the building with packaged meat, spices and other perishable products that could not be sold without refrigeration. Images posted on social media appear to show thousands of discarded items, including sliced packaged cheeses, packaged sausages, yogurts and dairy products, vegetables and large pieces of meat. People began to gather to save what they could.
Later that afternoon, however, Portland Police officers arrived at the scene. The department told HuffPost that it received a call from an employee Fred Meyer around 4pm local time about “a group of people arguing with employees and refusing to leave the property”. No officer was able to respond immediately, the department said, and an employee called back about 15 minutes later because “they felt the situation was escalating.”
“The food was not suitable for consumption or donation. The officers also tried to explain this to the group of people, “the department said in a statement.
Local activist Morgan Mckniff told The Oregonian that Fred Meyer’s employees called police after trying to guard the dumpster on their own. About a dozen officers eventually showed up, Mckniff said.
Fred Meyer, a chain owned by Kroger, said employees were “concerned that locals would eat food and risk foodborne illness and committed local law enforcement with plenty of caution.”
“We apologize for the confusion,” the company said the series of tweets. Fred Meyer did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The Portland police said the store’s employees called again later in the evening, but that officers refused to respond on the spot due to a lack of “imminent threat to life or threat of serious injury.”
No arrests or summonses were made, police said.
About 100,000 businesses and homes in Portland were left without power Wednesday morning, joining the millions of people in Texas who are suffering from power outages due to problems with the state’s electricity grid due to severe winter weather.
Portland police have recently faced staffing problems and an increase in burglaries targeting local businesses.
The city’s police force was the subject of nationwide criticism last summer for its harsh response to protests against police brutality and racial inequality, which turned into protests against local and federal law enforcement.
In July, federal officials sent by former President Donald Trump were seen grabbing activists from the street and putting them in unmarked vehicles, further fueling anger among residents after a protester was shot in the head by impact ammunition and was need surgery. The protests began to fade after federal officers left the city center later in the summer.
Calling all HuffPost superheroes!
Sign up to become a member to become a founding member and help shape the next chapter of HuffPost