Walmart food drive for destitute staff A photo of the containers was taken by an employee at the Walmart in Canton, Ohio. Picture: OUR Walmart Source: Supplied WORKERS at Walmart have started a food drive to help destitute employees enjoy a Thanksgiving meal in a move that critics say proves just how badly the US retail giant pays its staff. Storage containers were displayed at the Walmart in Canton, Ohio, with signs reading, "Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner." A photo of the containers was taken by an employee and secretly passed on to the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), a collective of Walmart employees planning strike action on Monday in Cincinnati and Dayton, the The Plain Dealer reported. Activists called the food drive "a moral outrage." "The company needs to stand up and give them their 40 hours and a living wage, so they don't have to worry about whether they can afford Thanksgiving," said Vanessa Ferreira, an OUR Walmart organizer. However, Walmart insisted the drive was proof that employees cared about each other. Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, told the paper: "It is for associates who have had some hardships come up. Maybe their spouse lost a job. This is part of the company's culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships. There is growing discontent in the US at the low wages and poor working conditions at Walmart and in the last several weeks a number of strikes have been staged across the country, including at stores in California, Florida and Illinois. The strikers demands including ensuring no associate makes less than $US25,000 ($26,600) a year and "ending illegal retaliation" against employees who speak out against pay and working conditions.