Is expired food being served to the homeless?

A local homeless man says what looks like expired food is being donated and served to the homeless near Downtown El Paso.

James fuller approached ABC-7 with the concern, and said that the Opportunity Center for the Homeless is giving out what seem like expired burritos, with numbers appearing to indicate expiration dates in 2012 and 2013.

“Expired food is being served in the shelter where I stay,” Fuller said. “It’s been brought to the attention of the director, and nothing has changed.”

Fuller had a few burritos and wrappers he said were served at the center Wednesday morning.

ABC-7 talked with the staff and executive director of the Opportunity Center, who said they got the burritos from the El Paso Independent School District as part of a pilot program to save food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of the day.

“I went to my kitchen and asked, and they weren’t aware of it” said Ray Tullius, founder and director of the center. “And when you pick up from a school, you don’t even hardly look for something like that.”

Staff for the Opportunity Center said they got the burritos directly from nearby schools in EPISD. And the district said the number isn’t an expiration date, or even a date at all, but rather a factory processing stamp. According to district spokesman Gustavo Reveles, an expiration date is stamped on the box the burritos come in, not the individual packaging.

Opportunity Center staff said it isn’t serving anything expired or dangerous to it’s residents. In fact, staff said the same kind of burrito was served to EPISD students within this week. The unused, un-served burritos were then donated to the center, still frozen to avoid unnecessary food waste.

The pilot food donation program between EPISD and the center has been expanded to six of the schools nearby including El Paso High.

Center staff said they serve three hot meals a day, 365 days of the year, and they always maintain food safety standards for the donated food.

“So we take tremendous care to make sure we transport it properly to ensure safety,” said Daniel Vasquez, director of development at the center. “To make sure food temperatures don’t rise out of safe standards, and we’re doing this in an effort to prevent waste on campuses.”

EPISD sent ABC-7 a statement on the burritos and the pilot food program, and said in part “EPISD has protocols in place to guarantee freshness of foods, including the control of expiration dates on packaged food items. Those guidelines are followed whether we are serving the meals to our students, or we are providing it to the Opportunity Center to serve to their own guests.”

In response to questions about the safety of possibly expired frozen burritos, the El Paso Health Department said it would be conducting an investigation into the food situation at the Opportunity Center soon.