Potter Box Analysis

  1. Defining the Situation Objectively: In March of 2019, COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic and with it came a wave of shutdowns. Stay-at-home orders went out across the country and businesses shut down. The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank is classified as an essential service, so it was able to stay open, but certain things had to change for safety purposes. 
  2. Some of the values that may be affected in this case are professionalism, transparency, and humanness. Professionalism was of the essence in March last year because the organization needed to deliver a composed message to the public and only state facts. A lot of people didn’t know what was going to happen at this time and if the place that people relied on to get food seemed uncertain of the future, it would cause even more issues. This ties into transparency which is what of the utmost importance. Transparency and professionalism was needed to address the volunteers, partner organizations, and everyone involved with food distribution. No one knew exactly how to handle this situation when it happened, but that’s ok. Just tell people that. As an organization there is an obligation to let everyone know as much as possible when their health could potentially be impacted. Which brings in humanness. The foodbank has an obligation to feed the people in the Los Angeles community while at the same time having sympathy for workers or volunteers who potentially can’t work. COVID can be detrimental to people with underlying health issues and to not be understanding to the needs of all those involved is unethical. 
  3. Professionalism aligns with Aristotle’s principle of the Golden Mean. This is the notion that there is a standard for well-being, excellence, and virtue for everything and it’s about finding the right balance. Professionalism walks the line between being too up tight, and completely laid back. With specificity to the foodbank, there is a standard employees must meet versus volunteers, but the company need be consistent throughout. Transparency aligns with the Deontological based ethics. Kant said that duties are obligatory and that absolute truth telling is of the utmost importance. In this instance, they have an obligation to tell the truth because people’s lives could potentially be threatened. Transparency honors this principle because it stresses the necessity of complete honesty no matter the outcome. Humanness aligns with utilitarian principles. Utilitarianism is the notion that pleasure, or happiness is the only moral good. It aims to bring the most joy to the largest amount of people, and that should be the decision. Humanness is about appeasing the masses and showing compassion in times of need. I can’t think of any better time than a pandemic to exercise this philosophy. 
  4. In terms of loyalties, the foodbank has an obligation to the people it serves, its employees, and anyone involved in the distribution of food (volunteers, suppliers, donors, etc.) The people it serves has a right to know to keep themselves safe and make sure how they obtain food will not cause them sickness. Employees have a right to know what kind of environment their employer is putting them under in the event they could get sick and potentially die from being exposed to COVID. People involved deserve to know so they can adjust how they want to help accordingly. It may not be what the foodbank wants to here but it is their duty to keep them informed. Loyalty towards employees falls under the Golden Rule and Deontological based ethics while loyalty to the people served and everyone involved aligns with Utilitarianism. These groups of people are the ones who have a loyalty in this situation and are impacted by how the foodbank responds. 
  5. In terms of navigating and making a decision on how to provide food during COVID-19, the best course of action is to find out as much information as possible on how the virus is spread. Shutting down the foodbank is not an option because people still needs its assistance, even more so in times as these. Once it is determined how it is spread, there need to be actionable steps taken to shift distribution to the least amount of contact as possible and implementing strict sanitation procedures. I would also recommend sending out a mass email with the updates to all of the parties discussed above to gauge response and if people would need to step away. This way the foodbank can get an idea of how many volunteers they won’t have, if donors are pulling funding, employees that need to take time off, etc. Once this is determined, a definitive plan can be drawn up and executed to keep everyone safe and food distribution flowing to the best it can. I believe this is the best course of action to move forward in one of the most trying times we will see in our lifetime.