McDonald's has been accused of exploiting homeless people in Rome as part of a public relations strategy to gain favour with locals following the controversial opening of a restaurant within steps of the Vatican.
A community group called Safeguard the Borgo said a recent initiative by McDonald's to pledge 1,000 meals to the homeless was nothing but a “commercial transaction which cynically uses the homeless and offends many years and daily work [done by others] to help alleviate extreme poverty”.
The US fast-food chain revealed the initiative after a handful of cardinals, as well as the Borgo group, complained last year that opening a McDonald's so close to St Peter's Square would further degrade and commercialise the Unesco-protected neighbourhood.
Read Full Article »