Petitioners aim to remove McDonald's from TGH

TAMPA (FOX 13) - There's a full-on Mac attack against McDonald's inside Tampa General Hospital.

It's being called the "Value the Meal" campaign.

"It doesn't make sense to have fast food inside a hospital," said Elena Cuadros, with Corporate Accountability International. "Hospitals are a place for people to heal and seeing a junk food brand inside gives a false health association."

Especially, they say, when it comes to the minds of young kids stuck in the hospital.

"We're specially saying, 'stop aggressively marketing towards children thru these trusted institutions,'" said Cuadros.

"It is about the message it delivers to them," added Value the Meal campaign coordinator Carla Formoso.

Wednesday, the group plans to hand over a petition, with more than 1,000 signatures, to the vice president of the hospital, urging TGH to say good-bye to the golden arches. In a statement, the hospital tells FOX 13 News:

"McDonalds is here under a contract signed in 1988 when TGH was a public hospital owned and operated by Hillsborough County. This contract runs through 2023 and contains no provisions that would allow us to end this agreement prior to that date. However, McDonalds is not the only food option at Tampa General. We offer a wide range of healthy selections in our food court that are available to the public. People today are more educated than ever about the role food plays in their health. They know what constitutes good and poor choices in selecting meals. They will make their own choices about the food they want to eat."

"We're going to keep working so they're convinced they're not going to renew that contract," said Formoso.

FOX 13 News also reached out to Casper's Company, which owns the McDonald's at TGH. Representatives there said the restaurant "fills a need" and people choose it because it "fits their lifestyle," adding "we have a variety of options that fit every lifestyle."