$post->post_content duplication issue

I have the following code:

<?php
								foreach($deptPosts as $post){
									if(has_category('dept-mid-'.$page_slug)){
?>
	<a href="#">
	<div class="col-sm-<?php echo 12/$count_cat  ?> mid-blocks">

									<div class="white-bg">

										<?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>

										<h3><?php echo $post->post_title ?></h3>
										<div class="center-block">
											<?php echo $post->post_content; ?>
										</div>
									</div>
								</div><!-- mid-blocks -->
</a> 

<?php
   }
}
?>

So without the anchor tag wrapping around the “mid-blocks” div, everything works fine. But once I put the anchor tag in, it adds many anchor tags instead of one for each post. An example is below:

<a href="#"></a>
<div class="col-sm-3 mid-blocks">
    <a href="#"></a>
    <div class="white-bg" style="height: 337px;">
        <a href="#">
            <img width="224" height="202" alt="fresh-pick-produce" class="attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" src="produce.jpg">
                <h3>Fresh Picks</h3>
            </a>
            <div class="center-block">
                <a href="#">
											Find out What’s in Season?

</a>
                <a href="whats-in-season"> MORE FRESH PICKS >></a>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
    <!-- mid-blocks -->

Another weird thing is that when I do ctrl + u to get the source, the html is fine there, but when I look in firebug I see what I put above.

I also noticed that once I take out $post->post_content, it works the way I want. (one anchor tag wrapping around the entire mid-blocks div)

What is my problem? How do I fix this?