Vera Liddell, 68, a food service director at Harvey School District, has been sentenced to nine years for embezzling over $1.5 million of chicken wings.
Liddell, who had been with the district for a decade, admitted to orchestrating a scheme that involved ordering more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings from the district’s designated supplier and picking them up using a district cargo van.
According to Cook County prosecutors, the stolen food was intended for students attending remote classes during the coronavirus pandemic. Liddell’s fraudulent activities began in July 2020 and continued until February 2022.
Her actions were uncovered when a business manager conducted an audit and discovered that food expenses had exceeded the budget by $300,000, or £235,000, with months remaining in the school year.
Despite the substantial expenditure, WGN reported that students never received the chicken wings. Liddell was charged with theft and operating a criminal enterprise in January of the previous year.
This case is not isolated. During the pandemic, several instances of food theft were meant for students. In March 2020, burglars stole frozen meals from Gosfield School in Essex, UK, intended for children of doctors and nurses working on the front lines.
The thieves took four commercial-sized freezers filled with food, including items from catering fridges and dry food from the kitchen, leaving the school unable to provide meals for students and staff.
Additionally, in 2019, a thief was captured on video stealing 1,000 cartons of milk over four months from Kincraig Primary School in Blackpool, Lancashire.
Liddell’s case highlights the ongoing issues of food theft and misuse, particularly during challenging times like the pandemic.
