Angel Food Ministries started selling discounted boxes of food to a few dozen needy families in 1994 and later expanded to include a network of roughly 5,000 churches in 45 states.
But this month’s announcement that the troubled Walton County nonprofit has suspended its food distribution and laid off its entire full-time staff of 90 has many worried about the future of Angel Food. The organization put its headquarters building in Monroe on the market this week and is considering revamping its operations.
The culprits are the economy and rising fuel, food and operational costs, Angel Food said in a statement released last week.
Rita Bowens, a volunteer in the Angel Food program at Friendship Baptist Church in Duluth, is concerned about the community that relies on the monthly boxes.
“We have a lot of people who are unemployed and underemployed,” said Bowens, who also serves as the church’s office manager.
She said the church usually orders between 40 and 50 boxes a month for families in the church and community.
The temporary loss of Angel Food will put pressure a on the church’s outreach center, which also gives away food. “Now those people are going to have to go to the food pantry,” Bowen said. “It’s definitely going to put a strain on our resources and those resources come from the church. Understand that a lot of church members who would normally give are unemployed as well.”
Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta is another Angel Food customer and serves as the host site for other churches. The church spends about $2,000 a month to help feed hungry families.
“You can’t get that much food for that amount anywhere else,” said Ron Tann, volunteer coordinator of the program at the church. He estimated that to buy the same amount of food at regular retail could cost twice as much. “It’s critical for everyone.”
Among those getting boxes are the terminally ill, the poor or senior citizens on limited incomes.
That includes people like retiree Jacqueline Gillenwater and her husband.
The food boxes have helped the couple get by on their fixed income. “When you go to the supermarket, you think you’re going to spend $25 and you end up spending $50 for necessities,” said Gillenwater, a former teaching assistant. “We will manage. It was helpful to us, but there are people who depend solely on those boxes.”
Tann said the church is seeking other alternatives such as discounted food programs. “We’re going to feel it in our community,” he said.
Indeed, on Facebook, hundreds of people went online to the respond to news that the nonprofit was temporarily suspending distribution. One woman wrote: “Have no idea what I’m going to do now. ... We fall thru the cracks in our area of the country and needed this SO much. I want to believe AF will be back, but in my heart I truly believe it is over.”
Teresa Morris, the afterschool director at Midway United Methodist Church in Douglasville, said a woman broke down in tears after she was told that the boxes would not arrive this month. “It just broke my heart,” she said.
The Waits family, which includes five children ranging in age from 4 to 15, usually buys a main food box for about $40 , several after-school boxes and a fruit box. Cynthia Waits sometimes buys boxes and donates to others. “We’re going to have to cut back, definitely,” said Waits, who lives in Palmetto and attends Midway. The children “are so used to it, I don’t know what we’ll do. I have to cut back on what I buy at the grocery store and pray everything goes back to the way it was.”
Angel Food was founded by Wesley Joseph Wingo, also known as Pastor Joe, in 1994. His idea, he once told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was to buy food at discount and use a network of churches and volunteers to sell it, with enough profit to keep it running. He would donate $1 back to churches for every food box sold for the once-a-month deliveries.
The temporary suspension of service comes at a time when Georgia’s unemployment rate in August rose to 10.2 percent — its highest level in six months — and the state has, according to census figures, one of the nation’s highest poverty rates in 2010.
“Like the thousands of businesses in America that have endured one of the worse recessions in the past 100 years, we too have faced operational and financial challenges,” according to an Angel Food statement. The nonprofit, which said many of those who were laid off continue to work on a volunteer basis, said it hopes to restructure in a way that will allow it to continue to help people in need and re-employ as many staffers as possible. It said it put its Broad Street headquarters building up for sale in anticipation of consolidating operations to its warehouse and offices on Unisia Drive.
To conserve energy and utility expenses at its cold storage facility, some foods have been returned to vendors and others have been donated to food banks and other charities.
A private plane owned by North Carolina Aviation Leasing, which lists Wesley Joseph Wingo as a member of the limited liability corporation and Angel Food Ministries as its manager, according to records filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office — is for sale for $895,000.
The longer Angel Food’s services are suspended, the more strain put on other food banks and nonprofit resources.
The Atlanta Mission, which receives monthly supplies of food donated by Angel Food has had to adjust its budget and seek other sources of food.
“We have certainly been making plans and actively reaching out to new donors,” said Jennifer Scholle, a spokeswoman for the organization. “We have to figure out how to cook the same amount of food with less.”
While the Angel Food move won’t affect the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia in Athens much, president John Becker said it couldn’t come at a worse time. He said he has run the food bank for several years and, in terms of need, this is the worst he’s seen.
“The loss of any provider of nonprofit food aid is going to put more pressure on the existing system,” Becker said. “It’s very difficult for folks to make ends meet, especially the working poor. People have gone through their savings, and they don’t have anything left.”
But an ongoing FBI investigation, lawsuits and issues raised by charity watchdog groups over compensation and loans made to Angel Foods’ top officers have cast a shadow over its work.
Angel Food spokesman Steve Savage said the federal investigation has taken its toll. It’s “had a negative effect on our public perception, our relationship with some of our churches and customers, and also has caused AFM to incur considerable legal expense.”
Shawn Van Gorder, director of charity evaluations for the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, said the organization has failed to voluntarily submit information three separate times. “We feel a charity should be willing to share information with anyone who asks,” he said. “We really expect a charity to be open and transparent about that information. You should be transparent and let people know what you do and how you do it.”
According to the nonprofit’s most recent IRS 990 filing, 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 Joe Wingo’s wife, Linda, listed as a director and corporate secretary, was paid $100,480.
Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing and CFO of Charity Navigator, questions Wesley Joseph Wingo’s compensation amount.
“We track CEO compensation and have found that charities with $130 million in expenses typically pay their CEO in the $330,000 to $380,000. As such, Wesley Wingo’s $680,000 salary seems pretty high.”
“I think a charity’s most precious commodity is the public trust and anything they do to damage that can really destroy the organization,” she said.
But for some of the people it helps, even questions about executive salaries take a backseat to feeding their families.
“They’re doing a good thing,” said Waits, who blames the media. “I hope they get back on track.”
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