David Binkle is a professional chef who served as the director of food services for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He was so highly praised for his “healthful” lunches of vegetarian curries and quinoa salads that Michelle Obama invited him to the White House in 2014 to sit on a nutrition round table. This despite the fact that students in Los Angeles claimed his “nasty, rotty” food made them throw up.
Students making fun of Michelle Obama’s healthy lunch program at #healthylunch pic.twitter.com/98JG1EIQmb
— Ekim Nazım Kaya (@ekimnazimkaya) November 22, 2014
Well, it seems justice has finally been served. Binkle was fired from his job in 2015 after he was accused of misappropriating school funds, and this week he was indicted for stealing $65,000 in public funds:
According to court documents, Binkle repeatedly misappropriated district funds in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 between 2010 and 2014. Prosecutors also allege that he forged an application to become a vendor with the district and failed to disclose outside financial interests.
If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in prison.
Despite earning a $152,000 salary, Binkle reportedly siphoned off school lunch program money into his private culinary consulting firm and a personal bank account. He also took kickbacks from overpaid contractors, one of which was Tyson Foods – the Fortune 100 company under which Hillary Clinton made a very shady profit trading cattle futures way back in the late 70s.
In other words, Binkle didn’t care one bit about children’s nutrition; all he cared about was making a profit for himself at the great expense of taxpayers and students alike. He deserves to go to prison – and Michelle Obama’s school lunch program still deserves to go in the trash.
