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Fresno organization offers food to the hungry. The requirement? Take your mask off
A Fresno organization that offers food boxes to the hungry in Fresno’s Tower District is raising a controversy with its requirement that recipients first remove face masks.
H. Stuart Barrett, of the Joint Military Assistance Command, freely admits that the requirement is a way of making a point about wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic: There is no obligation to wear facial coverings for those not in a building, he said.
The group was in a parking lot at North Maroa and East Olive avenues Friday morning, where several members of the organization were passing out boxes containing oranges, apples and other items to drivers who did not appear to have any issues with the requirement.
Barrett said he believed that wearing masks could sometimes be unhealthy, as it might cause people to breathe in more carbon dioxide than was good for them. Another member of the group piped in with an anecdote about a driver who caused a crash while wearing a mask.
News of the requirement sparked a backlash on social media, where some accused the organization, which some thought was a church group, of helping spread the coronavirus. City of Fresno spokesman Mark Standriff said the city’s Code Enforcement officers would check for compliance, but the city’s goal was to seek compliance before issuing fines.
Barrett said he was aware of the complaints, and that he received an email asking him to look at a video that a woman posted criticizing the group. But he said the video wouldn’t work on his decade-old flip phone. He added that his group was not affiliated with any church.
He said the Joint Military Assistance Command was dedicated to helping needy veterans and their families get access to food, and also with helping veterans fill out paperwork to get the government assistance that they deserve. The food they were handing out was a surplus that was not needed by veterans, Barrett said.
The food giveaway is just one cause that Barrett, a Navy veteran, has dived into. He is also an advocate for Sanjuana Garibay, a Fresno woman who was severely mauled by two pit bulls during an hours-long attack in a Fresno alley in 2016. Barrett met her while visiting another person in a Fresno rehabilitation center.
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