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For blood donors, fast food for thought

In offering free food as an incentive, should there be healthier options?

By RODNEY THRASH
Published June 23, 2005

SPRING HILL - James Gustin is a model of health. He donates blood. Every 56 days. He gets his iron and cholesterol checked. Every 56 days. And immediately afterward, he heads to . . . Subway, Hardee's, CiCi's Pizza or some other fast-food restaurant. Every 56 days.

Okay, so maybe model of health is too strong a phrase.

"I'll plan my donation around . . . a free $6 sandwich," the 58-year-old Gustin says, a plastic Subway to-go bag at his side.

In the three years since he moved to Florida, he estimates he has given blood 21 times and received hundreds of dollars worth of free food. If Gustin has to wait until the 60th or 61st day since his last donation for a complimentary meal, he will.

"It is a benefit," he says.

But at what cost, asks Crystal Neville, a manager at the Subway on Spring Hill Drive, which participates in LifeSouth Community Blood Centers' donor incentive program. In exchange for blood, donors get a free footlong sub sandwich.

Neville has seen donors come in with their red stickers - the proof that they gave blood - and exchange them for footlong meatball or roasted chicken subs with all the trimmings.

"Regular mayo," she says. "Lots of it."

Don't try recommending healthier options, Neville says.

"They get upset," she says.

Gustin doesn't think incentives are a big deal.

"It is nice to get something for nothing," he says. "For a lot of people, it's the difference in giving and not giving. Somebody will go out of their way for a free sandwich, but they usually don't go out of their way for no reason."

So agrees Donna Wyatt, a donor consultant for LifeSouth Community Blood Centers in Lecanto, which last Thursday parked its bloodmobile in front of the Wendy's in Homosassa and handed out coupons for free burgers, fries, baked potatoes with sour cream and frozen desserts.

"The truth is donors come out for anything free," she says. "If we can offer them free food, that's a draw for them to come in."

Though she could not provide any quantitative proof, Wyatt says when there are incentives, more people show up.

But what about those people whose cholesterol levels are so high, they're at risk of a heart attack? Do they get the fast-food freebies, too?

"There's no discrimination," Wyatt says. "Everyone who comes through our doors and donates blood gets the same incentive item."

And on this day, what does Gustin get in exchange for his donation?

A free footlong sub with creamy ranch dressing, chicken and greasy strips of bacon. Toasted.

Not for himself.

"For my son," he says. "I'm a diabetic. I'll get their salad."

- Rodney Thrash can be reached at 727 893-8352 or rthrash@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 13:29:03]