An Illinois school employee has been sentenced to nine years in prison for stealing $1.5 million worth of chicken wings meant for students during the pandemic.
Vera Liddell, 68, who was the food service director for Harvey School District 152, went $300,000 over budget several months before the end of the school year, drawing suspicion, prosecutors told ABC 7.
The 60-year-old woman who ordered 11 cases of chicken wings between July 2020 and February 2022 used a school van to pick up the food that did not reach students, the Cook County District Attorney’s Office said.
Even though schools were closed, the district near Chicago continued to provide catering services, sending meal kits to students in remote learning at the height of the pandemic, the New York Post reported Sunday.
Originally charged with theft and operating a criminal enterprise in January 2023, Mme Liddell, who was a food service manager in the district for 10 years, will spend the next nine years in the shadows after pleading guilty.
