(Natural News) In what is perhaps one of the most disgusting examples of the old saying no good deed goes unpunished, the city of Malibu, an upscale southern California liberal enclave, allegedly told a local church to stop feeding the homeless.

The United Methodist Church in Malibu serves about 100 meals every Wednesday night and has been doing so for the past three years. Recently, the city emailed church leaders and asked them to attend a meeting that was apparently convened for homeless outreach organizations. Once there, government officials told the Methodist church to end the food giveaway after the Thanksgiving holiday because it was exacerbating the problem. "They claimed we are increasing homelessness," one of the church volunteers told CBS News Los Angeles. Another church member added that many of the homeless individuals eat out of dumpsters and trashcans when they don't obtain their meals from the church.

The new Malibu policy created an uproar in the community, and the city now denies that it told the church to shut down the soup line. According to the city manager, the purpose of the meeting in question was to coordinate, rather than reduce, services to the homeless. "And she specifically says no request was made by the city for Malibu Methodist to end its free food nights," The Malibu Times explained.

The city followed up with a press release indicating that the dialogue with the charitable groups will continue after Thanksgiving and that no decisions were made at the initial meeting.