HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. -- The owner of a Hancock County business has apologized and is offering new training after an employee offended the co-founder of a charity.
Oya Woodruff, known as Chef Oya, operates a seafood restaurant at 34th Street and Keystone Ave. called "The Trap."
Woodruff also co-founded Justuscorcharity.com to reach out the homeless and provide food for people in food deserts.
Woodruff says she and another African-American woman walked into Tyner Pond Farm shop and said they wanted to buy high quality meat in bulk.
"She said well our meat may be a little too pricey for me to buy," said Woodruff.
Woodruff wanted to possibly buy 100 pounds of meet on a weekly basis for the charity.
She says she won't be buying it from Tyner Farms now.
"It was an instance of ignorance and casual racism. How can you ascertain what I can or cannot afford by simply looking at me. What would make you say that? What makes you say your meat is to pricey for me?" said Woodruff.
Amy Baggott, owner of Tyner Pond Farm Store, publicly apologized for the incident on Facebook.
"We failed in our customer service. We failed as kind caring humans, and we failed to be included in an amazing and important partnership," said Baggott. She declined our offer for an on-camera interview.
Woodruff accepted the apology and called the incident a teaching moment.
"Treat people with the same dignity and respect as you would want someone to treat you and as you would want your family and anyone else to be treated," said Woodruff.
Baggott now says all of her employees will receive implicit bias training and get that training as soon as possible.
