Newsindhs l Independent News l July 2, 2019
Weeks ago I spent about an hour and a half documenting the visible socio-economic status of the people who were lining up to receive free food from the catholic church on Pierson Blvd between Ocotillo Rd. and Mesquite Avenue.
What I found was pretty surprising.
I knew that what I was going to document was a potential climate for fraud knowing boxes and boxes and bags and bags of food are offered weekly free of charge to just about anyone void of any deep investigation into if they are in true need of the free food or not.
What I did not know was just how many people would be going to the food bank in Desert Hot Springs only to walk away with free food who would show outward and open connections to not being poor and also be in possession of sometimes expensive assets.
The most apparent assets that the receivers of free food in DHS sometimes showed were both their automobile they were driving and the clothing they were wearing.
Now I don’t want to go further without recognizing that it’s always possible that some of the people accessing the free food were acquiring the food for other people who are poor and simply just delivering it to them.
But.
From what I understand in order to receive the free food that is just days pre expiration at St. Elizabeth’s, the recipient just has to sign a form that says they make less than X.XX amount of dollars per year. Some documents say it’s somewhere near $24,000 per year and under.
But do they verify if this is true or not?
How can they?
So what’s to stop a person who makes MORE than $24,000 per year from just committing fraud by just signing the form and walking away with boxes and boxes and bags and bags of free food?
In reality…. nothing.
Can I prove that the people who were walking away with pounds of free food did not qualify for the food? No I can’t. But some statistics are useful in analyzing what I witnessed going on outside St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary Church in Desert Hot Springs.
They are the following.
Food banks get their food this way. SOME local supermarkets and produce stores offer days where organizations and very low income individuals (though they prefer groups, churches, shelters, etc) can come before the store opens and pick up groceries a day or so before the expiration dates come due.
Food banks rarely are able to hand out all the food they collect on the trailer from the supermarkets they collect from.
If they cant deliver it all before it goes bad, it must get destroyed.
And in order to give it to you, you must fill out a form showing you earned less than approximately 24,000 per year (some make a lot more than $24,000). If you said I don’t think I qualify and I don’t know anyone who does the average food bank would say “It doesn’t matter, its not like anybody is going to check, and if you don’t take it… its only going to get destroyed anyway… take a stack of these forms and get all your friends and their families to fill them out, remember to have them say they earn less than 24,000 per year, and you can pick up the food for all of them and distribute it yourself if you want… that’s the only way we get our federal funding.”
That is not what St. Elizabeth of Hungary has said to me, it’s just what happens at a lot of other food banks in America.
So… in essence, its a scam at a lot of food banks, again not necessarily St. Elizabeth’s. A lot of food banks say they are giving away food to poverty stricken individuals when in truth their getting paid some pretty hefty salaries based on how much food they give away, and they’re giving the food away to anybody willing to lie on a form (or a pile of them), and some food banks even encourage people to lie on as many forms as they can have you fill out, and if you don’t do it, they will just destroy the food anyway. And your tax dollars are paying for this…
From what I witnessed around St. Elizabeth’s I would agree that the following statistics were the same within the DHS food bank participation.
- 93 percent of the clients are not homeless
- Nearly two-thirds of the client households had at least one working adult at home in the last year
- An estimated 25 percent of households served by one state’s Food Banks report that someone in their household has served in the US Armed Forces or as a member of the military Reserve or National Guard
So where does that leave Desert Hot Springs and the food bank in town that hands out food to residents every Tuesday morning after 8 am until late morning?
The St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church food bank does not appear to be worried about anything during it’s weekly handing out of food to people who eagerly carry their bags and carts and dollies up to the line that winds through the south west courtyard of the church property.
The St. Elizabeth’s church owned pickup truck and trailer can be seen weekly trekking down Palm and over the freeway to load up dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of pounds of food to be brought back to the church.
And when that food comes time to be given away there always seems to be lot’s that walks away from the church.
The receivers seem happy to get the free food and the staff seems pleased to give it away.
Truthfully though, this man looked like a man who really needed the food he was leaving with. I don’t know him but he struggled the whole way from the Church property to Palm Drive to carry this modest amount of food. He had to set the food down just about every 10 feet it seemed so that he could catch his breath. It broke my heart to watch him strain to get his food back towards his destination the way he did.
So that leads me to the next question.
Is the amount of food that’s being sold to grocery stores that cannot possibly all be sold being sent to them intentionally as an inflated order? Do the grocery stores purposefully get too much food sent to them just so that they can send hundreds of pounds of food through food banks on purpose?
You must wonder if that’s true because the over production and delivery of food to food banks before it’s expiration date rolls on and on and on and on and on.
That to me looks like a system that is not trying to become more efficient so after a long enough time it starts to look intentional that this deliberate second destinationing of food to food banks is going on.
Here are some collectors of food in Desert Hot Springs and their dress and their transportation. You determine if you think they are needing of free food. In the video a woman is shown parking her car as close as she could to the entrance to the food bank, even parking illegally to do so. She is shown in the picture below the video walking up to the church with bag in hand.
These are random pictures of people in pretty valuable cars that left with a lot of food for free.
Here is a lady who left her car parked a block away for some reason. She’s dressed well and drives a very nice vehicle.
This woman left her vehicle that proudly displayed the sticker from Cal Baptist University in order to acquire pounds of food for free.
This older gentleman drove a brand new Honda SUV and did not dress as though he was in too much need. But looks can be deceiving.
And last but not least this lady drove to and from church in a $25,000 Honda with many of the most luxurious bells and whistles. You be the judge on this one.
