If you look up information about Winnipeg Harvest food bank, there’s really nothing on the website about it being a faith-based organization. But one of it’s distribution centers, affiliated with the Bethlehem Aboriginal Fellowship Church, told potential volunteer Richard Friesen that he was banned from working there because he dared to question the group’s requirement that he “respect BAF’s stand on marriage between one man and one woman”:

Friesen and his father contacted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, which said that such a requirement is illegal, and the church has since changed its application form to avoid punishment (it seems). In the meantime, however, Friesen still isn’t able to volunteer there.

You have to wonder if the main goal of the food bank is to serve others or proselytize. No decent group turns away good help because volunteers have the audacity to treat LGBT people with the respect they deserve.

Let’s hope they don’t deny food to the people they claim to be helping for those same reasons.

***Update***: I edited this post to clarify that Winnipeg Harvest, the general food bank, did nothing wrong here. It was one of its church-affiliated distribution centers that had the requirement. Friesen says he is now working with a different center, which is undoubtedly also getting it’s resources from Winnipeg Harvest. I apologize for any confusion.

(Thanks to Dorothy for the link)



