A former Illinois public school food service director for an impoverished Chicago-area district has been sentenced to nine years in prison after stealing $1.5 million in chicken wings from the county.
Vera Liddell, 66, worked for Harvey School District 152 for over a decade.
“The massive fraud began at the height of COVID during a time when students were not allowed to be physically present in school,” reads a proffer at Liddell’s bond hearing, according to a report from local station WGN9. “Even though the children were learning remotely, the school district continued to provide meals for the students that their families could pick up.”
The prosecution accused Lindell of ordering 11,000 cases of chicken wings with the district’s money and picking them up in a county van.
“The food was never brought to the school or provided to the students,” the court document explained.
The document did not explain what happened to the wings after Lindell took them.
“The scheme was uncovered by the district’s business manager during a routine mid-year audit. The manager found the district was $300,000 over its annual food service budget despite only being halfway through the school year, according to prosecutors,” the local news report explains.
“She discovered individual invoices signed by Liddell for massive quantities of chicken wings, an item that was never served to students because they contain bones,” prosecutors explained.
Lindell pleaded guilty on August 9 and was handed a nine-year prison sentence.
