The staff at Open Arms of Minnesota, one of the biggest meal delivery programs in the Twin Cities, was conducting a routine computer upgrade this month when staff members noticed something odd.
The agency had contracts to cook and deliver 2,000 meals a day to sick and elderly folks across the Twin Cities. But documents showed another 200 to 225 meals were going out the door. Week after week after week.
An employee, it seems, had set up phantom food contracts with four suburban Meals on Wheels programs. While Open Arms cooked the meals and delivered them to Hopkins, St. Louis Park, Burnsville and Bloomington, the employee collected the payments. The exact financial hit from the scam, which started last May, is still being determined. But the cost of just one meal is roughly $4, or $800 a week. In six months, the loss could be as high as $192,000.
"We're using the word 'significant' in terms of dollars but not in terms of the impact on the organization," said Tim Meyer, chairman of the board for Open Arms. "Nonprofits tend to be trusting of people. We got thrown a dose of reality that we are a business as well."
Open Arm's board of directors will meet Tuesday night to determine future steps to deal with the mess. They've already fired the employee, contacted Minneapolis police, and notified thousands of supporters and key funders.
While the police investigate, an auditing firm is now calculating the extent of the losses. In addition to the money diverted from the four unsuspecting Meals on Wheels nonprofits, cash also apparently was pocketed from a summer Loaves and Fishes program in the Twin Cities.
Open Arms is the single largest caterer of Meals on Wheels in the Twin Cities, preparing about 1,200 of the 4,500 daily meals, said Patrick Rowan, executive director of Metro Meals on Wheels.
The scam points to the need for tight checks and balances at nonprofit organizations, he said, especially those serving the poor and disadvantaged that tend to attract the most trusting souls.