Charity Begins At Home

So many people are going hungry. Food pantries can't keep up with demand. Everywhere, those who can afford it are asked to donate.

In the face of so much need, does it make sense that a charitable organization providing food at a deep discount would go out of business?

That's why Angel Food Ministries' excuse doesn't pass the laugh test.

The organization was founded seventeen years ago by Pastor Wesley Joseph Wingo. His goal, or so he claimed, was to distribute cheap food to those in need through various church-run food pantries.

Headquartered in Georgia, Pastor Wingo and his family ran the operation, in which boxes of food were sold at a steep discount. Churches participating in the program were paid $1 per box, and Angel Food Ministries claims they distributed around 4 million boxes in 2009 alone.

With that kind of volume, how could they go wrong?

It was a case of charity beginning at home. In this case, it was Pastor Wingo's home.

He was paid a substantial salary, over $600,000 per year. His family was on the payroll as well, at a cost of a couple of million dollars in 2006.

There's only so much money to go around and the dollars didn't seem to get farther than a Wingo pocket. And let us not forget the loans that Mr. Wingo took out when his salary didn't stretch far enough to meet his needs.

Hard to believe this is a charity we're talking about, unless Mr. Wingo was the charitable cause at the heart of Angel Food Ministries, and the food bank was so much fluff to hide his extravagance. The fact that the Wingos charged $850,000 in personal goods and services to the charity's credit card doesn't fit the charity scenario, which is why board members sued the family in 2009.

Angel Food Ministries has shut its doors and those who relied on the food program will have to look elsewhere.

They are "heartbroken to have to cease operations", but if you had a brilliant scam going, you'd be heartbroken too when it all fell apart.

In the meantime, the FBI is looking closely at Angel Food Ministries.

They don't seem to be buying the line about tough economic times and rising food prices and high fuel costs and a decline in sales as the root cause of Angel Food Ministries' demise. Not when the Wingo family benefited so richly from what was supposed to be a non-profit designed to help others, rather than themselves.