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Escambia School District Cafeteria Manager Charged With Falsifying Meal Records, Grand Theft
July 8, 2014
A former elementary school cafeteria manager has been charged in connection with falsifying the number of meals served at her school.
Patricia Coker Green of Cantonment was charged with grand theft and official misconduct. She was released from the Escambia County Jail shortly after her arrest on a $5,000 bond.
Green, 53, was employed by the Escambia County School District from August 1994 to January 2014, resigning her position prior to any disciplinary action. At the time of her resignation, she was a Food Services II manager that had worked at Ferry Pass Elementary School from at least 2008 until her resignation early this year.
An internal school district investigation determined that “a significant number of fictitious free meals were recorded” at Ferry Pass Elementary. The report estimates that during the 2009 through pending 2013-2014 school year, 116,051 breakfast meals and 16,866 lunches were falsely recorded. The fictitious meals were included in claim submissions to the State of Florida and caused the Escambia County School District to be wrongly reimbursed.
On March 4, 2014, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services determined the Escambia County School district was “over-reimbursed for the fiscal years of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 for the National School Lunch Program.” As a result, a check in the amount of $254,415.43 dollars was requested from the school as reimbursement payable to the State of Florida.
Based upon the number of meals prepared and served through the Ferry Pass Elementary kitchen, Green was paid as a Food Service Manager II. But due to the fictitious meals, officials said she should have been paid $10,286.07 less per year as Food Service Manager I.
When interviewed, Green “could not provide any plausible explanation other than claiming students would not eat breakfast if they did not see her in the kitchen,” according to a warrant affidavit provided by the State Attorney’s Office.
Green was notified on August 29, 2013, to reduce her kitchen staff because her current number of meals served did not match her staffing levels. Green took a leave of absence on September 3, 2013 for personal reasons, and did not return to work until her resignation.
Comments
18 Responses to “Escambia School District Cafeteria Manager Charged With Falsifying Meal Records, Grand Theft”
I worked for the district for 38 years.Sad part they are some of the hardest working people in those kitchens and underpaid.The management are over paid and the district as a hold has the worst accountability and the auditors are clueless. Shame is the bad rap to the workers.
@bewildered: just have to say this…if you think that the school serving only wholesome meals will ELIMINATE childhood obesity, then you are a very uninformed person who obviously has no experience with children. You think that is the only meal they will get in a day? hmmmmmm….just saying…
When reading this article, the words oversight and accountability come to mind. You also have to wonder, where in the world did all the extra food go? Sounds like we may have been operating Ferry Pass Elementary restaurant supply.
The Program is needed for sure. I agree that the head of these departments should visit and serve the kids food line not sit behind a desk. People have to be held accountable for their actions. This includes the bosses. The school has many long term employees that see the good the bad and what works best but it never seems to change. The Leaders down town need to start a bring a supervisor to work day. LOL
My other thought is what is happening now right under our noses ??
The children have to enter their student ID numbers in order to proceed through the lunch line, whether they are free lunch or not. She must have been really good at falsifying records to say more lunches were given than what really were. This makes no sense. This goes to show they really do need a check and balance. It took 10 years?
There is a lot of wasted food and children aren’t even allowed to share what they don’t want or can’t eat. The daughter of a friend of mine was sent home with a note which in turn ended being disciplinary action because she shared her lunch!! Absolutely ridiculous?!
@ southerner…obviously you have more money than you know what to do with and have no kids, or you have kids and your wife/husband pays all the bills. If it weren’t for that program a lot of kids would most definitely go hungry during the day. Most of them come from single parent households and can’t afford full pay lunches. I, myself am widowed, and trust me when I say this..the free lunch program is a true blessing. Being from the south, I am outraged at your comment!! Shame on you!!!!!
There are many, many children who are NOT on free lunches. They pay full price for their food, or they just bring a lunch from home. The solution is simple. If you don’t like what the lunchroom serves, including Moochelle’s ridiculous menus that even the federal government is now balking about, then just bring your own lunch. If enough children bring their own lunches, the problem will solve itself.
I guess there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
@Ashley…bewildered said prior to the statement that you quoted “why not make WHOLESOME meals free to every child in school as needed or wanted?” I don’t see a lack of empathy when they suggest nutritious free meals for any child who wants/needs it. Just my thoughts…
Is there no Administrative over-site? Where? they seem to always find problems after weeks, months and years down the road? why is that? maybe to total lack of over-site created this problem?
Salaries that were stated seem a little extreme, if you go to the School District’s website you will see the pay scales for both the Food Service Manager I/ II
Salaries for the Manager 1- $11.81 hr for the Manager II- 13.00 hr
don’t see a 10 K difference…one makes 22,675..the other 24,960 a year….
How can something like this happen, you must have over-site.
Where is the checks and balances from our district auditors?? The check the district just had to write to reimburse the state would have paid the salary of a full time auditor for each of those years with a bit to spare.
This is a good situation to demonstrate that government employees salaries should not be tied to production. Had her salary not been tied to the number of meals served, there would have been no incentive to over bill. You enter a public service job for the benefit of serving not just for a salary that would be even to that of a private sector job.
When will we ever learn?
You would be absolutely shocked if you saw how much food (unopened prepackaged foods like milk, chocolate milk, yogurt, breakfast bars, cheese sticks, etc.) not to mention fresh fruit, is thrown away each and every day. The child is required to put it on their tray even if they know they don’t want it. I wish a higher up would go stand beside the trash can as trays are emptied.
Are you serious?! ” no segment of our population could whine that their kids are going hungry during the day..” This smacks of privilege and ignorance and complete lack of empathy. There are kids that would have no food or little food at all if it wasn’t for these programs. My mother works at a school like this. Irregardless of how you feel about their parents’ choices, these kids deserve to be fed.
This occurs throughout the country: http://www.nokidhungry.org/problem/hunger-facts
Why not eliminate the program completely?
This whole school feeding program is a lot of administrative work and leaves a lot of room for fraud and abuse. Half of the kids eat free, a certain percentage pay reduced prices,a couple of kids pay full price. Why not make “WHOLESOME” (absolutely no junk) food available FREE for everybody as needed or wanted. It would eliminate childhood obesity (Michelle Obama’s gripe!) in a short time. The cost of the huge amount of wasted food in our lunch rooms would make up for the money lost from the paying students and no segment of our population could whine that their kids are going hungry during the day. It works in other countries that do not divide their citizens by economic standards! A truly hungry child will eat what is on the table.
Sounds like, in addition to putting the school in debt to the State, she owes quite a bit in overpaid salary, not to mention punitive fines. Sad way to go.
Now that is cooking the books.
It’s a lot of work to be a thief…..