WOODBINE, Ga. – The head of a nonprofit that took funds that were supposed to feed poor children over the summer in coastal Georgia stole from the state by saying she provided meals that were never made available, the Georgia Office of Inspector General said.
Dawn Eggleston, CEO of Our Daily Bread Inc., was indicted last week by a Camden County grand jury on one count of false statements and one count of criminal attempt to commit theft.
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The state’s Summer Food Service program provides an estimated 5-6 million meals each summer for approximately 82,000 children in the state.
In 2017, Our Daily Bread submitted for reimbursement of $831,354, claiming to have provided meals at 177 locations from Brunswick to Albany. After routine evaluations at multiple sites, state Department of Early Care and Learning administrators, which supervise the program, suspected that Eggleston had misrepresented the total number of meals actually served. Subsequent surveillance by the IG’s office and other investigating agencies confirmed that Eggleston regularly inflated the meal counts and that Eggleston submitted a fraudulent reimbursement, according to the indictment.
“Every summer, sponsors across Georgia are entrusted with feeding our most vulnerable children,” said State Inspector General Scott McAfee. “When they misrepresent the number of children that are actually participating, not only are they stealing money from the taxpayers, their greed takes food away from children that struggle to find meals outside of school.”
GuideStar, which reports on nonprofit organizations, shows Our Daily Bread Inc. is registered in St. Marys with Eggleston as its principal officer. The group’s last federal tax return -- from 2017 -- showed it employed 33 people with revenue of $1.25 million and expenses of $1.38 million.