A group of friends and volunteers, called Free Hot Soup KC, had been feeding the homeless in several Kansas City area parks for three years, but last Sunday things went horribly wrong. The group had gathered at a park near Prospect and 12th Streets and were sharing a hot meal with people they called their friends. But the Kansas City Police and the Kansas City Health Department also came.

The health inspectors claimed that the group didn’t have the necessary permits and that the food they were serving could have been a health hazard to those eating it. Their fix for the problem – pour bleach on the food so people couldn’t eat it.

Nellie McCool is one of the organizers for the events and says that things could have been handled much differently. Dr. Rex Archer, the Director for the health department, claims that the group was warned in September that they needed a permit, but McCool says that isn’t true.

Archer says because the food is prepared in unlicensed kitchens and the way it was transported in vehicles could have made it unsafe to eat. He also claims that a volunteer threw food at an inspector when they were told not to serve it.

McCool also says that isn’t true. She says the volunteer threw it on the ground when inspectors told them to stop serving it and then the inspectors covered it with bleach, a procedure that Archer says is standard.

Although the incident has the city in an uproar, Mayor Sly James is supportive of the health department and Tweeted that the rules are in place to protect people and all groups have to follow them – no exceptions.

McCool says that they will continue to feed their friends, “no matter what” and have served food again since the incident. This time the food was prepackaged and not the kind of food they would like to serve. “It doesn’t warm the soul,” she said.

Attorney Amy Bell, who has volunteered to represent Hot Soup KC says the group has the right to feed the homeless in the parks. “It’s our right of freedom of association and freedom of speech,” said Bell.

She says for some it is also a freedom of religion issue. Their religion dictates that they should come and share food with these people and help them. The health department has offered free training and permits to the group.

Check out the video below to learn more about this story and share it with your friends. What do you think? I think these people deserve a warm meal and that the food they were being served is safer than what they might have dug out of the trash.