Atheist Blogger's $3K Donation Finally Accepted by Food Pantry
Teacher and atheist blogger Hemant Mehta finally found a home for his rejected $3,000 donation this week when the Niles Township Food Pantry agreed to accept the money. The donation was previously rejected by the Morton Grove Park District and the Morton Grove Library.
Charles Levy, clerk of the Niles Township, a suburb near Chicago, Ill., confirmed this week that the Niles Township Food Pantry had cashed Mehta's check for $3,000. "It went through like any other donation," Levy said on Jan. 7, according to the Morton Grove Champion. "It was labeled as a contribution to the food pantry, so there was no reason to treat it differently. We deposited it a few days ago."
Before this week, Mehta's $3,000 donation was rejected by two other groups over the course of two months. Mehta first raised the money as a donation for the Morton Grove Park District, after the local chapter of the American Legion cut its annual $2,600 funding to the department because one of its commissioners, Dan Ashta, refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The park district rejected Mehta's donation, which he had raised from donors online, saying that it did not want to accept the money and possibly become involved in a "First Amendment dispute."
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Mehta then attempted to give the money to the local Morton Grove Library, but trustees voted against accepting the donation, with one trustee, Cathy Peters, saying the religiously offensive comments written on the Facebook page for Mehta's blog, "Friendly Atheist," prove those behind the donation are part of a "hate group."
Mehta's third attempt for the donation was the Niles Township Food Pantry, which provides food to the hungry in Niles Township as well as Morton Grove. Mehta said in a YouTube video in December that he was hoping the Niles Township Food Pantry would accept the money. "Hopefully the people will benefit from it. I just can't believe how hard it has been as an atheist to give away money with no strings at all to people who you would think would want the money."
Mehta took to his well-known blog, "Friendly Atheist," to announce this week that in fact his donation check has been cashed. "I've never been so happy to see a $3,000+ debit in my account," he wrote. "Now back to our regularly scheduled lives." Mehta included a screenshot of his bank account that showed the $3,000 check had been withdrawn.
