Settlement reached in Angel Food suit

[Hannah Bell]

"Credit cards canceled, financial audit authorized, board members agree to step down."

"The legal fight over Angel Food Ministries, a $137 million nonprofit...Angel Food feeds 500,000 families a month...

...the Wingos’ company CREDIT CARDS WILL BE CANCELED, the nonprofit will undergo a forensic financial audit, and JOE WINGO WILL SIGN OVER TO Angel Food A COMPANY HE OWNS THAT WAS RENTING A CORPORATE JET TO THE NON-PROFIT AT $10,000 A MONTH PROFIT.

Joe Wingo and son Wesley will retain their agency roles."

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/03/07/angelfood0307.html



Some questions come to mind:

1. They feed 500,000 families/mo, = 500,000 families 12 months/year, with a budget of 137 million? So it costs 27.4 million per year per family?

2. How does the pastor of a church in a town with 11,500 people come to own a jet to rent out? Oh, wait, maybe he got it with money he borrowed from his "ministry"?


"Angel Food Ministries loaned $1.1M to family members"

"Angel Food Ministries, the Georgia nonprofit started to help struggling families with food costs, made more than $453,000 in unsecured loans in 2007 to formerly high-paid family members running the organization. It brought the total of their loans to more than $1.1 million over a two-year period."

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/02/23/angel0223.html?cxntlid=inform_artr


"...the average CEO salary of $50 million-plus nonprofits was about $218,000 a year.

Joe Wingo’s...salary jumped to $588,529 in 2006, when it sold $96 million in food with a $20.9 million profit. Wife Linda and sons Wesley and Andrew averaged more than $500,000 each that year.

“Five hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars, that is just astronomical,” said Janelle Kerlin, an assistant professor in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Kerlin compared that to CARE, the international development agency based in Atlanta.

'It brings in over $600 million a year. It’s a huge organization, far outsizing this one, and its top executive makes $400,000 a year,' she said."



Another question comes to mind: this is a tax-exempt "non-profit," selling food supposedly "at cost," but it makes 21 million in profit off 96 million in sales, i.e. 22% profit margin?

Woo, nice work if you can get it.

[marketcrazy1]

1. check your math.............

137 million divided by 500,000 is 274!! thats twohundred seventy four dollars per month or 3,288 per year per family wich would come out to 1.644 billion per year.. either i am missing something or this article is..............

[Horse with no Name]

2. Faith-based my ass

Imagine how many hungry could have been fed if those sloths had not been lining their pockets.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. This was my first thought.

Obama has to get this faith-based crap out of our government.

[Warpy]

3. Check your math

That looks like $274.00 per family per year, meaning a lot of families got the food maybe once a month, once every six months, or just once, either because their circumstances improved or because they didn't like the selection.

It does look like Wingo was skimming and scamming all he could off the top, though.

I hate it when good charities turn into charity begins at home for the head honchos.

[Hannah Bell]

6. you're right, my error, & a stupid one, don't know what i was thinking.

so how does it work that they can sell $96 million in food with a $20.9 million profit?

either the food costs them much less than they're saying, or they're taking the government funds & private donations as their "profit".

[Warpy]

12. They've been skimming all sorts of donations

of course, including faith based dollars from Uncle Sam. I doubt what they've reported in donations is particularly accurate. In addition, they seem to have bought all sorts of toys that they lease to the ministry for a fat profit, the private jet being only the most obvious and egregious.

I hope the charity continues, it's a good one. However, the assholes need to be ousted. The charity can't afford to support sultans any more.

[originalpckelly]

4. Um, yeah that's more like $274 per year, or $23 a month.

It would stand to reason, however, that not every family served would be needing help every month. So the yearly thing is probably better. It seems plausible.

No wonder people in this nation have no clue of how bad they're being fucked, I'm willing to bet more than a few people have absolutely no number sense.

[marketcrazy1]

5. 23 bucks a month

that makes more sense.....

[Hannah Bell]

7. acknowledged, my error, & an incredibly stupid one.

i have this number sense, though.

They fed 500,000 families & made 20% profit, paid their family a couple of million, gave out a million in unsecured loans to start for-profit businesses that existed to bill their "charity" out of the money it got from the government, private donors, & the poor people who bought their food packages.

they kicked part of it back to the gop to get more government largesse.

It's the charitable version of military contracts.

[lapfog_1]

8. It's very likely that 500,000 families a month is

really 500,000 meals (OK, family meals) a month or about $22 a meal. There isn't any way a family could
survive on $22/month meal budget, as that is under $1/day for two or three meals for a "family".

But a family could eat a decent meal for about $15 (if prepared by themselves or with a lot of volunteer
help). And the extra $7 a meal would be for the private jet and "stuff". Cause you just can't
run a decent charity without a private jet and $585K a year salary. Ask any televangelist.

:sarcasm:

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. The Chancellor of UCLA is paid about 400K to run a billion dollar org with 35K employees

This family of grifters was pulling in 2 million in salaries???

[ColbertWatcher]

11. Thank you for the update on this. k+r, n/t

[jmowreader]

13. There should be a tax audit in the near future

It's obvious that Angel Food isn't a nonprofit as the term was originally constructed--it's a grocery distributor. It is very streamlined and very slick--the churches who distribute the food take orders and send them to Angel Food headquarters (keeping one dollar per box as a commission); the Angel Food people order food in bulk from suppliers, divide it into boxes and deliver it to the churches, who release it to the purchasers. It's a wonderful racket--their staff is smaller than it would be in a for-profit enterprise because most of the grunt work is being done by people who think it's the Lord's Work, and very few are going to seriously question what they do because once you get past the swindlers and grifters that run it, Angel Food Ministries is an organization that does good, important work.

I don't have enough information to calculate hard numbers, but it's thoroughly possible for this to work as a tax-paying, for-profit entity. Not all religious businesses should hide behind 501(c)(3)--look at LifeWay! They would do just fine as a for-profit business. I think Angel Food would as well. Unfortunately for us all, if you thought Social Security was a third rail look at companies like Angel Food and LifeWay. They make money hand over fist, and no one will touch them.