Four Charged With Scamming Elizabeth School Lunch Program

Four people -- an Elizabeth school district employee and the spouses of three other district employees -- have been accused of under-reporting their income to qualify children for the school district's free and reduced-cost lunch program, the Union County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement Wednesday.

Four people have been accused of lying about their household income in order to qualify for a lunch program intended for poor students in Elizabeth
Photo Credit: *File*

Paul Milo

09/04/2019 11:15 a.m.

The employee, Nancy Acevdeo, 52, who works in the custodial department, was charged alongside Faraj Assi, 42; Mayra Rivas-Pozo, 39; and Angelica Roman, 39. They are each charged with third-degree theft by deception.

A forensic analysis of the school lunch program by the Special Prosecutions Unit and Detective Dennis Donovan was launched when an audit by the school district turned up discrepancies, authorities said. The free and reduced lunch program, which is intended for needy students, is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Investigators looked at three years of data and discovered that the suspects enrolled multiple children in the program, fraudulently claiming $7,000 in benefits by under-reporting their income by more than $925,000, authorities said.

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