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Susan G Komen's alignment with KFC
Started
by LBN1203
on April 15, 2010
Is anyone else outraged at the new SGK fundraising campaign with KFC. I sent an e-mail to my local chapter this morning who assured me that it would be sent to the National office. Please consider sending your own letter if you feel passionately. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote. I am very disappointed with the SGK foundation's alignment with the fast food chain, KFC. Fast food is a major problem in our society adding to the epidemic of onset juvenile and adult diabetes and obesity. Why would the SGK Foundation want to be part of the problem, not the solution? Not to mention the carbon foot print of all those pretty, pink buckets. Our bodies store in our fat cells, a very toxic chemical found in meats called, Dioxin which is a human carcinogen. Dioxin has been linked to causing breast cancer. Additionally, grilled chicken and steak create cancer causing compounds called, heterocyclic amines, when the flesh hits the grill.
KFC is a major buyer of factory farmed, chemically feed chickens who used to grow about 25 grams per day, but after 50 years of applying industrial methods to make chickens grow faster, now grow 100 grams per day. Again, what were you all thinking regarding this campaign? Is the SGK foundation as sleepy as the rest of America when it comes to the connection of food intake and our health. We have a full blown health insurance crisis in this country and you all align with KFC? WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP........please wake up. I want you to be a successful organization through fundraising, just not with a fast food chain and not as the expense of someone else's health.
Please stop this KFC fundraising campaign, fire your marketing director, hire socially conscious people who understand the impact of chemicals and obesity in relation to breast cancer. Folks, it is not all genetics, it is what we eat as well.
Yes, it is a national campaign that just rolled out this week. The commercials are on TV hoping to make this the most successful fundraising event ever.....at the expense of chickens and humans. It has pushed a button in me like no other. A breast cancer foundation so disconnected.....I just cannot wrap my head around it.
LBN1203,
I had no idea either! That letter is to the point and very well written.
Thanks for the heads-up, this is outrageous! I loved your letter!
Thank you. I knew I would find support through the Kind Life. Thanks and please send those letters to let our voices be heard.
As a breast cancer survivor I am shocked (but not surprised) that an organization like Komen would take on a sponsor like KFC when it is proven that fast food contributes to so many health problems in the US and meat especially grilled meat can contribute to breast cancer.
Obviously Komen is only concerned with money and will align themselves with anyone regardless of the ethical responsibilities.
Also, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (Neal Barnard) is suing KFC and other fast food companies to make them inform customers they are buying meat with carcinogens in it. Komen had to know about this law suit and yet they still partner with them. http://www.pcrm.org/news/release090924.html
Thank you Kim for sharing this important information.
I am really not comfortable with Komen on many levels. And many of my fellow breast cancer friends share in my sentiments. I do support my friends that run in Race for the Cure because it is important to them and I actually participated last year but I will never participate again.
I am particularly distrubed by their I am the Cure campaign. I had two friends die this week (both diagnosed under the age of 40, one was only 29) and a good friend (38 years old) with metastatic breast cancer (spread to her liver, bones and spine) found out yesterday that the cancer has progressed even though she is on chemo! I am devestated!!!
If I am the Cure then why aren't my friends cured? Where is their cure?
Grrr...Komen frustrates me. Don't get me started on their commercials. Makes breast cancer look like a party.
oops...sorry to hijack the thread and add too much of my opinion. :)
Kim, I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your two friends. We are definitely not going to find a cure for breast cancer through eating KFC chicken. Ok, so just the thought of that made my stomach flip. I get that SGK wants to make money for research, but I am just as frustrated at their lack of education and nutritional support that they give to their members. They should be quoting research that shows the nutritional benefits vegetarian diet and the reduced number of cancer patients who are vegetarians. But they don't want to fight the meat companies.
On that note, I am heading to the kitchen to fix a nice organic salad and a hummus and tabouli pita. No meat for this veggie girl :~)
It is amazing to me that SGK would launch this campaign on the heels of KFC launching their new product, the "Double Down" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36179954
Two fried or grilled (does not really matter in the long run) chicken breasts with twho kinds of cheese, bacon and a mayo.......who thought of this?
Sandwich Calories Fat (g) Sodium (mg) KFC Original Recipe® Double Down 540 32 1380 KFC Grilled Double Down 460 23 1430 
This reflects JUST the sandwich not the fries that people usually order with these....look at the fat and sodium alone!
This makes some of the most impassioned meat eaters hear their arteries begin clog when they think about eating it.
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