Food for thought

Charity | Angel Food Ministries finds itself at the center of lawsuits | Warren Cole Smith, Rusty Leonard

Associated Press/Photo by John Bazemore

It has all the elements 
of a Shakespearean drama: power, money, religion, and sex. But is it The Tempest, or Much Ado About Nothing?

The answer to that question depends upon whom you ask.

At the center of the controversy is Angel Food Ministries. Founded in 1994, the Monroe, Ga., organization feeds poor families. But even though it calls itself a ministry, part of the controversy is whether it is really a very profitable business.

At first glance, Angel Food Ministries seems to have designed a great system to help the poor. It creates a menu designed to feed a family of four for one week. Then it buys food in bulk from manufacturers to fulfill the needs of that menu. The individual boxes are packed at AFM's huge warehouse and then shipped to churches in 35 states. The churches use volunteer labor to manage the distribution locally, usually selling the boxes for the same $30 they cost the churches from AFM. "By using the churches as a distribution point and cutting out the middleman," said Juda Engelmayer, spokesman for Angel Food Ministries, "we can cut the price of the food dramatically."