RIP Angel Food Ministries

[mrslynch]

I read in the news today that Angel Food Ministries is closing down.

I know that they had some legal trouble a few years back and wonder if that has something to do with it. It's a shame because it did offer a pretty sweet deal for those who were trying to stretch a food budget without use of food banks and the like.

I'm a little surprised that the program is shuttering. Is anyone else?

[mizbear]

I had read something about it and although I am saddened by its closure- from what I have read- they did it to themselves.

You can't be charitable and greedy both.

Got to get the pantries stocked.

[Sam_2.0]

You can get a better deal by just shopping at Aldi or Save-A-Lot most of the time. I never thought their boxes were worth it for the products I got.

[mizbear]

We don't have Aldi or Save-A-Lot here.

[Wisconsin Beth]

There may be other options, by the way. My parents used to get food from SHARE. I'm told it started as a co-op for underpaid religious staff and was expanded a few years ago. I'm not sure if it's still going or not. I got some veggies from them earlier in the year but haven't ordered since then.

[newmummy]

Our local county health department has a free "produce drop" for any family in the area, but if you're not looking for the postings, you don't find out when & where.

[weltschmerz]

I'm a little surprised that the program is shuttering. Is anyone else?
--------------------
No. For a "non-profit", they were profitting quite well.

"Because of the recession, groups like theirs have seen a big increase in demand for their services, and most have not seen an equal increase in income and donations," said Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing and CFO of the watchdog group Charity Navigator. "Groups are under pressure right now. But on the other side, I think it's troubling because of the salaries they were paying, the number of families members who were working at the charity ... all that leaves a cloud of suspicion over what happened."

According to the nonprofit’s most recent 990 filing with the Internal Revenue Service, Angel Food paid a total of $1.06 million in 2009 to three family members who run the organization. Angel Food paid Joseph Wingo $697,037. His son, Jonathan Wesley Wingo, listed as director of pastoral ministries and chief information officer, received $265,195. And Linda Wingo, listed as a director and corporate secretary, was paid $100,480.

www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/angel-food-shuts-down-1185867.html

[formerroomate99]

The sad part is that Catholic Charities is the only good sized non-profit organization I know of that doesn't give their senior staff 6 figure salaries.

[Clever Username]

I don't have any idea of the scale for their business.
Can anyone make any parallels to companies of similar size/complexity on the private side so see what they're paying their execs?

[formerroomate99]

Frankly, I don't give a rip what the private sector pays it's execs. The fact that executive pay in the private sector has gotten out of control doesn't justify taking food from the mouths of starving people so that you can give upper management exorbitant salaries. I don't give my money to pigs. Any charitiable organization that spends all their money on overhead isn't going to get a dime from me.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Sept 29, 2011 16:40:20 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

The site that I got the Angel Food from is switching to SHARE foods. They might not be the only ones.

TT, my parents have liked most of the food they've gotten from SHARE. It's brands we've never heard of and sometimes food they don't routinely eat so they'd pass it on to us sometimes.

[Clever Username]

Sept 29, 2011 16:18:33 GMT -5 formerroomate99 said:

Frankly, I don't give a rip what the private sector pays it's execs. The fact that executive pay in the private sector has gotten out of control doesn't justify taking food from the mouths of starving people so that you can give upper management exorbitant salaries. I don't give my money to pigs. Any charitiable organization that spends all their money on overhead isn't going to get a dime from me.

But that's exactly what I was trying to gauge.

There are some jobs where $1MM salary is underpaid.
There are some jobs where $1MM salary is overpaid.

As far as I know they are operating a nationwide food distribution business.

The article I saw looked like possible Yellow Journalism.
It was very emphatic that the people receiving the salaries were FAMILY (hint, hint, they're not really working, nudge, nudge, they're stealing).
By that same measure, our Secretary of State didn't really deserve her job, she's neither a powerful attorney, never got elected for nothin, and she's stealing out hard earned tax dollars and not really doing her job.

Now, I'm from Chicago. There's plenty of overboard nepotism here, oft is the newspaper article where a cousin was simply "put on payroll." But at least those journalists focused on the family members who got paid but didn't actually work.
This one seems overly concerned with the getting paid and is less focused on whether there was work.