Texas Man Sentenced for Using Needy Kids Nonprofit to Scam Millions From Government

A 47-year-old man has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison after an investigation revealed he wildly inflated the number of meals he was providing to needy children through a government program and scammed the program out of $2.3 million.

Michael Anthony Munson, founder of the Heloise Munson Foundation in Dallas, Texas, admitted to swindling the program over the course of seven years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ].

Through his nonprofit, Munson claimed to have provided over 2.4 million meals to needy children in order to be reimbursed by the government through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program, which connects children with meals and snacks when school is out of session. In reality, Munson provided less than 1 million meals to children in need and instead pocketed the extra cash. 

In addition to lying about the number of meals, Munson also lied about buying food altogether.

In 2013, Munson testified under oath that his foundation purchased foods from Janus Wholesale Food, Inc. and submitted a doctored affidavit from the so-called company’s director of sales to prove the company sold food supplies to Munson. In fact, Munson had paid someone $75,000 to fabricate invoices from the fake company to match the number of meals Munson had claimed his foundation provided so he could be reimbursed, according to the DOJ.

Munson was first indicted on five counts of summer food service program fraud in 2018 and later plead guilty in 2022. Restitution is expected to be ordered later this week.