Do McDonalds and their “new policy” refuse homeless people?

Rumours are flying across social media that claim fast food chain McDonalds have implemented a new policy that bans customers from buying food for homeless people.

From what we can determine, most of these rumours point to a website called TrueActivist (though other low quality news aggregator sites have also picked up on it) that published a story in May 2015 with the headline “McDonald’s ‘New Policy’ Bans Customers From Buying Food For Homeless”

However, after reading the story on TrueActivist, the article tells a somewhat different story, instead detailing two incidents that happened in a single McDonalds outlet in Manchester, UK, information it gleaned from media outlet Manchester Evening News. The first incident involving a man initially being refused service for wearing scruffy looking clothes, but who was later served. The second being from a young female who was told she could not purchase food on behalf of a homeless person.

Taking these two accounts from a single McDonalds outlet (out of 35,000 outlets worldwide) and subsequently coming up with a headline that states McDonalds are implementing a new policy banning customers from buying food for homeless people is, to say the least, far-fetched. More accurately, it’s lying.

In fact, in the very last sentence of the TrueActivist article, it states that McDonalds have confirmed that this is NOT an official policy of theirs, directly contradicting the headline of the same article.

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McDonald’s have confirmed that there is no new policy, and in response to queries via their social media channels, have said –

The story isn’t true, both people quoted were served, McDonald’s does not have policy about not serving homeless people.

And regarding what was going on in the Manchester McDonalds store, the fast food restaurant has claimed that it is investigating the incidents and apologises to the people involved. A spokesperson states –

We are very sorry for this incident and can confirm that it is not McDonald’s policy to refuse to serve homeless people.
We are currently investigating this incident and are speaking to Mr Jackson to rectify this mistake.

So there is no new policy and homeless people are welcome to purchase food from McDonalds stores. This is just a story that has garnered attraction because of a pretty misleading headline from low quality “news” websites. As for the store in Manchester, that is being investigated.