Charitable Group Can Do No Right

Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

November 6, 2009

Poor sanitation, expired snacks and milk served too warm were just the start. The state also found the Giving Tree falsified information, showed up late and sometimes didn’t show up at all to feed children in the Arizona Department of Education’s 2008 summer food program.

Department inspectors found 19 significant violations, leading them to revoke the Giving Tree’s contract to run the program, an extension of the federal school-nutrition program. The Giving Tree was found so deficient it had to return $40,000 in federal funds it was given as an advance and was denied reimbursement for the food service it provided in May and June of that year.

The state has deemed other agencies deficient in the past, “but the Giving Tree was the first time it was ever severe enough to terminate,” said Lori Bassett, the department’s summer food coordinator. She said there are 140 summer food-program sponsors statewide.

Giving Tree director Libby Wright declined interview requests for this story. Her organization, which also runs a twice-weekly meal service for the poor, was awarded a contract to feed children qualifying for federal assistance in the summers of 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

But after a routine inspection in the summer of 2008 raised concerns, Department of Education officials say they returned in July to make sure the Giving Tree was complying with federal regulations. They asked Pima County Health Department inspectors to go with them.

Education Department inspectors found milk served at 67 degrees, canned fruit at 87 degrees and pasta-and-cheese at 105 degrees. “All the foods listed were in the danger zone, meaning bacteria grows more quickly at those temperatures,” Bassett said.

Cold food, such as milk and canned fruit, must be served below 41 degrees, said Lynn Ladd, director of the department’s school health and nutrition programs. Hot food, such as pasta and cheese, must be above 140 degrees.

Inspectors from the county health department found 11 “critical violations” that day. Food-service facilities fail any inspection with more than four such violations. The state’s Department of Education also found the Giving Tree was giving food away at unauthorized sites, while skipping some designated sites.

Preston Adams, a former Giving Tree client who worked for the summer feeding program, said that after workers visited a couple of designated sites, Wright told them to give the rest of the food away. It didn’t matter who received it, Adams said, or whether other sites hadn’t been visited.

Ladd said summer feeding sites are posted online so parents and caregivers can easily find food for children. She said she received no complaints about food not showing up.

The most serious findings in the two inspections, Bassett said, were lack of documentation and misuse of federal funds. State inspectors became suspicious of numbers the program submitted, Bassett said, because the Giving Tree was unable to document the volume of food prepared or distributed during a routine review.

When the state asked for receipts of food purchases showing it had fed as many children as it claimed, the organization was unable to provide them, Bassett said. “Their documents did not support the numbers they were claiming,” she said. “Where they came up with those numbers, I can’t really say.”

Sally Hueston says she knows a bit about where the numbers came from. So do Preston and Elizabeth Adams. All three are former Giving Tree clients who worked for the summer feeding program. They said Giving Tree supervisors overstated the number of children fed.

Sonja Corso also worked for the Giving Tree program and said she normally fed about 25 children each day. But Corso said when documents were submitted for reimbursement, the number would jump to 250. Corso said Giving Tree Director Wright changed the numbers and told her she wouldn’t be paid if she spoke up.

The Adamses stayed at the Giving Tree off and on for two years while struggling with drug addiction. They worked in the summer feeding program in 2007 and said they were to receive $7.50 per hour for a six-hour day. Wright evicted them shortly before the program ended, they said, and refused to pay them.