Whole Foods Protest.

After work today, I was planning to go to a Whole Foods groundbreaking that I have been invited to. I worked diligently for these people in helping them get their plans approved. I am starting to hate myself for even being so nice. While it is my job to review plans and get developments through the approval process at the City I work for, I am pretty sure I went above and beyond with this project. For what? To bring in an establishment that discriminates against me for my size, genetics, and my body in general?

Whole Foods recently started a voluntary employee discount program. Employees are eligible to get up to a 30% discount off their Whole Foods purchases. Who knows, that may even extend to their sister store, Whole Body....well, that sounds all well and good, right? Don't be so sure. Employees who sign up for the program are actually rated based on whether or not they smoke, their cholesterol, blood pressure, and Body Mass Index (BMI). The healthier you are, the higher discount you get. Does this seem fair or just to anyone? I cannot believe that anyone would have the audacity to pilot such a program in the name of better health.

Whole Foods promotes a healthy lifestyle and living sustainably. However, it sounds to me like they only want to cater to those who are already healthy or already sustainable. I'm not even going to get into the fact that the chain is not nearly as sustainable as they claim to be. I gotta keep focused on this sham of an incentive program they are waving in front of their employees.

Sure, all employees get a 20% discount. But, those who are naturally thin get an extra 10% on top of what the overweight ones get. Not to mention, high cholesterol and high blood pressure can be genetic. A person can eat extremely healthy and still struggle to keep those numbers down. Meanwhile, if a fairly overweight person starts losing weight, they could trim that BMI down, but will it ever be enough to get them up to the full discount. Some of us have alot farther to go than that checker on aisle 3, who is a mere 15 lbs overweight. Does this program offer me any incentive to start that long journey of hitting a perfect BMI? I think not.

I will NOT be shopping at Whole Foods (or attending a groundbreaking for the expansion of such an egregious enterprise) until I hear that they are more supportive of their employees and customers, regardless of their weight.

See the DailyNews article here.