Nonprofit Caught With its Hand in the Campaign Cookie Jar

The Online Athens Banner-Herald contains an interesting scoop posted yesterday.  Seems a nonprofit organization known around mostly conservative Athens, Georgia (home of the hated Georgia Bulldogs, I might add) has been secretly donating tax exempt funds to “conservative candidates.”  The exempt organization is innocently named Angel Food Ministries, Inc.  Its stated purpose is to donate and sell groceries below cost to needy families in rural Georgia.  Unfortunately, it is also accused of donating $50,000 to “conservative candidates” during recent elections. Here is what its website says:

In 1994, Pastors Joe and Linda Wingo found their hearts going out to the families of many of the local families in Monroe, GA, affected by the recent industrial plant closings.  On their back porch, the first Angel Food distribution fed 34 families.  Over the next years, other churches wanted to be get involved, and Angel Food began feeding hundreds of families across the southeast.  Now, Angel Food feeds over 500,000 families a month in 35 states.  Praise the Lord for his faithfulness!

I am all for praising the Lord and working in his vineyards, but do you realize how many boxes of bread, cans of peas, and packages of Ramen noodles that amount could have purchased to feed the poor people Angel Food Ministries features on its website?  Of course, innocent until proven guilty.  But once found guilty, throw the dadgum book at ’em. 

dkj