Wal-Mart Workers Defend Food Drive That Asks Employees To Donate To One Another

Wal-Mart has come forward to defend an employee food drive.

The Canton, Ohio, Wal-Mart made the news earlier this week for asking employees to donate to other employees in need.

"We're proud of the pay and benefits at Walmart, but this issue has nothing to do with how much we pay our associates," spokesman David Tovar said in an email to the media. "This story is simply about people being good neighbors, taking care of each other store by store, associate by associate."

"It's unfortunate that an act of human kindness has been taken so out of context," Tovar added.

The food drive outraged many who failed to understand why a company that makes billions in profits would ask its workers, many of whom make low wages, to donate to other workers.

"That Wal-Mart would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers - to me, it is a moral outrage," Norma Mills, a customer at the store, told the Plain Dealer.

Workers at the Wal-Mart location participated in a video to defend the food drive.

One woman named Kelly said she has worked at Wal-Mart for 16 years and was helped by fellow associates after her home flooded.

"Like colleagues at companies across America, Walmart associates just want to give a helping hand to their work family during life's unexpected events," Tovar writes.

Here's the video the retailer made to defend the food drive: