In the summer of 2020, with pandemic-driven unemployment surging across Tennessee, the state contracted with two Shelby County community groups to provide meals to children at risk for hunger in locations scattered throughout the county.
But when auditors with the Tennessee Comptroller’s office made surprise visits to check on the programs, they found no children – and no food being served – at 17 of the 21 promised sites.
The two nonprofits – Open Door and Alumni Music – are among the most recent examples of what auditors have described as “deceptive schemes” in child hunger programs overseen by the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
But they are not isolated instances.
State auditors have uncovered schemes involving millions of dollars in misappropriated funding intended to provide meals and snacks for poor kids over the past eight years in Tennessee – where one in four kids is at risk for hunger every day.