Children's Clinic Receives Backlash For Renaming Facility After Krispy Kreme

The University of North Carolina's Children's Specialty Clinic has been renamed as the Krispy Kreme Challenge Children's Specialty Clinic, and a lot of people are upset by the implications of this change.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge is a charity race meant to support the UNC Children's Hospital, where participants run 2.5 miles through Raleigh, attempt to eat a dozen original glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and run back.

Though the charity race has brought in a total of $954,000 in donations for the hospital since it started nine years ago, some people are skeptical of renaming the clinic because it promotes the high-fat, sugary doughnuts.

"Shame on my colleagues for not finding a way to accept funds without providing free advertisement for junk food," Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, told MedPage Today in an email. "They are high sugar, high fat, [and] refined carbohydrate junk food primed to add to the child obesity problem plaguing North Carolina."

The clinic specializes in various areas, including consultations for endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, and pediatric cardiopulmonary exercise testing. The clinic told MedPage Today in an email that Krispy Kreme does not fund the Krispy Kreme Challenge, though the doughnut chain is listed as an official sponsor on the UNC website.