Staff of Food Charity Fired After Theft of Donations

Feed the Children fired all 14 employees at its Nashville distribution center amid an investigation into whether they stole box loads of goods that had been donated to the charity.

Meanwhile, 201 aid agencies in 15 Eastern states are left without food from the charity.

Founder and president Larry Jones said Thursday that the center will stay closed while the relief agency takes an inventory of missing items.

“For it to just sit here while agencies are really begging for it, that’s really a sin,” Jones said. “I’m saddened for Feed the Children. I’m also saddened for the children who are hurt right now. But you have to remember that every company in America has this problem.”

Jones closed the 274,000-square-foot warehouse on Tuesday and fired the workers after state investigators found box loads of donations in the homes of several upper-level employees.

The findings followed a four-month investigation by Nashville TV station WTVF, which secretly videotaped administrative staffers carting boxes of clothes, food, toiletries and more to their cars and homes.

Dist. Atty. Torry Johnson said the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will deliver the findings of its investigation to him this week. He will then decide whether to file charges.

Feed the Children spokeswoman Emilee Truelove said the organization was not sure all of the employees were stealing but that all were fired “to restore the trust in our donors. We wanted to let them know that we were doing all that we could.”

Jones said some staffers could be rehired later.

Five staffers from the charity’s Oklahoma City headquarters arrived in Nashville to begin taking inventory. Jones said he could not estimate how much was taken or when the warehouse might reopen.

Jones said he is considering installing surveillance cameras and is meeting with consultants for other ways to prevent employee theft.

He said he does not think stealing has been a problem at Feed the Children’s other warehouse in Oklahoma City, but all operations will be looked at “because we don’t want it to happen again.”

Jones said workers first reported stealing at the warehouse to him while Feed the Children was in the midst of Oklahoma tornado relief work, but the agency was unable to investigate before the TV news reports ran.