For more than thirty years Golden Hills Community Church has been feeding countless people for Thanksgiving. However, this year’s Thanksgiving for the church went horribly wrong, resulting in three people dead and many hospitalized after the event. People in California are suspicious, especially students, who are pointing fingers at the church and the food served on America’s beloved holiday.

The church hosts Thanksgiving events to feed homeless and others who come to the Golden Hills on Thanksgiving. However on the 24th of November, the church unknowingly served “bad” food to the 800 plus people attending. A few days later three people were killed and five others hospitalized from what we know of as food poisoning, and every bit of evidence pointed to the church. The death count remained at three and more than ten people were sick and hospitalized.  The issue is now contained.

Just about every theory hangs in the air about this tragic event, but in the end it looks as though the tragedy was just human error – though some people cling to the idea it was intentional. One sophomore shared his opinion about what happened between Golden Hills and the people.

“They need to make sure what they (people) are bringing in is legitimate. I think there really is no way for any food to get so poisoned so severely so I was thinking it (the poisoned food) has to be done on purpose,” said Michael Schmidt (10).

Unfortunately, there are many ways food can become inadvertently contaminated, such as through being handled without contaminated gloves or after someone doesn’t wash their hand sufficiently.  Food can also spoil if left at the wrong temperature or by not being cooked or reheated thoroughly. Although Golden Hills has been hosting the event for years, the fact that much of the food was prepared off-site and brought to the event by individual members makes it more difficult to ensure proper food handling.

Most people agree it was simply a tragic accident.

“It’s pretty crazy, but I don’t think that you can blame the church in a way that makes it seem like they did it (the food poisoning) on purpose or that it is their fault. I doubt they would have served any of that if they had known it would make people sick. I think it was definitely by accident, I don’t think anyone would purposely serve bad turkey, just in general,” said Jones (12).

Jones’ opinion is what most students agree with and is a more probable one based on the church’s history. He also posited another valuable point about the church’s incident. If they did indeed know, why would they serve the bad food, considering that the participants of the event are from one of the biggest and most loved churches in Brentwood.

After completing their investigation the Centers for Disease Control reported that those sickened at the event ate food contaminated with Clostridium perfringens, bacterium often found in raw and undercooked meat and poultry.