On Friday, April 3, it was brought to our attention that a commercial food donation contained Medicated Nerds Rope Candy infused with THC, which was passed through to a partner agency in Roy for distribution to clients. These packages look exactly like regular Nerds Rope packages, so it is almost impossible to detect the difference unless a person knows specifically what to look for.
Utah Food Bank was able to trace all products that came as a part of this bulk commercial donation, and it was determined that no other partner agencies received such products. Through the due diligence of First Baptist Church of Roy and the Roy Police Department, it was discovered that approximately 70 families received food distributions containing these products. The majority of families who received the product have been contacted, and through this we learned that 5 children were sick after eating the product. Two of these children required medical care, and have been released. At this time, Utah Food Bank and the Roy Police Department don’t anticipate that any other families will be affected, and the police department has collected the candies that were handed out from all of the families they were able to reach.
According to Ginette Bott, Utah Food Bank President & CEO, “We are absolutely horrified that this product went out to any of our partner agencies, and can easily see how volunteers would not have known what to look for. We apologize to any families who may have received this product.”
As a result of this discovery, Utah Food Bank is changing our policies and procedures regarding the handling of these bulk donations to ensure that this does not happen again. In addition, through our partnership with Feeding America, over 200 network food banks across the country have been notified that such a product exists, and what to look for, so that this does not happen anywhere else in the country.
Utah Food Bank continues to work with the families affected by this horrible mistake, and expresses our most sincere apologies that this occurred.