Sedona AZ (July 19, 2018) – The Board of Directors of the Yavapai Food Council announces a transition in leadership that is part of the 2018 strategic plan. An interim Executive Director assumed day-to-day operations of the council in June under the supervision of Harvey Grady, founder and board chair.
The board now faces the challenge of finding the financial means to continue YFC programs beyond this summer.
The Yavapai Food Council has provided more than 1.5 million meals since 2009 by identifying gaps in the emergency food network, supporting efforts toward local, sustainable food sources, and mobilizing resources to reduce hunger in local communities.
YFC created innovative programs to feed food insecure children, adults, and seniors in Yavapai County, including food banks and pantries, weekend meals for students, school meals, and enrolling persons in the federal SNAP food assistance program.
The Food Neighbors Project, commonly called the “green bag” program, will continue without interruption with help from local nonprofits. The next collection day is Saturday, Aug. 11.
The summer meals program, which provides 4,000 meals and snacks to 205 children, will wrap up on July 31.
Organizations served by Bountiful Kitchen will be receiving a letter concerning possibilities for this upcoming school year.
The Council would not have been able to reduce hunger in Yavapai County without the gracious and generous support of its community partners, donors, volunteers and staff. We thank everyone who has helped YFC with the extremely important mission of feeding our local children.
“The board of directors will keep the public and Council partners apprised of future developments as soon as final decisions are made,” said Grady.
If any organization’s representative has questions concerning a specific program, please call the YFC office at (928) 254-8172 or email info@yavapaifoodcouncil.org.
2 Comments
The above press release from the Yavapai Food Council BoD, is an homogenized platitude to hide the truth from the Community.
In reality, the Executive Director of the YFC, Amy Aossey, is currently under criminal investigation and suspicion of defrauding the YFC past the point of bankruptcy for her own personal gain.
Allegedly, Amy Aossey, along with her daughter, Danyah, embezzled somewhere between $300,000 and $570,000 from the YFC. This was done by multiple, meticulously planned schemes.
“Paying” volunteers with Federal payroll dollars and diverting the monies elsewhere, charging her (Amy Aossey’s) wedding to the YFC, defrauding city, county, state and federal funds to diverse, mystery accounts.
Ms. Aossey indeed did enter the YFC at 2:00am and erased all the hard drives off of the computers. To this day she will not relinquish the passwords, rendering the Domain Name Sever impotent.
She also purchased bedroom and living room furniture sets and the above catering of her wedding, all in the name of YFC, on YFC credit cards, for Ms. Aossey’s personal use.
Shamrock Food Service, linen service, multiple personal payroll accounts, diverting rent money and basic electric and internet bills are all 4-6 months in arrears.
In the end, sadly, so many hungry children of Yavapai County will go without thousands of meals band cause of Amy Aossey’s alleged actions.
Sorry, but “alleged” only goes so far before Thruth prevails.
The County Attorney will need to take a multidisciplanary approach, using the Power of Subpeona to uncover the electronic money trail, which will involve local banks, Paypal accounts, and the involvement of the US Postal Police, Federal Treasury Dept. and the services of the FBI.
Meanwhile, what happens to the hungry children?
Hopefully, the County Attorney can recover some of the monies, perhaps enough to reopen the doors of YFC.
Till then the Board of Directors will continue hush this story as much as possible, as they fear damage control over feeding hungry children.
Sincerely,
Marvin Felt
In reply to Mr. Felt, Ms. Amy Aossey has provided the following email from Det. Brandon Bergstad, Sedona Police Department:
—– Forwarded Message —–
From: “Brandon Bergstad”
To: [Ms. Aossey]
Sent: Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 10:55 AM
Subject: Yavapai Food Council Case Closure
Good morning ma’am,
I tried to call you at your phone numbers I have available but did not get an answer so I’m emailing you know which may be better for your circumstances. So last week, I met with attorneys at the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office and presented the Food Council case to them. I gave them the in’s-and-outs of the entire case and after doing so, the Yavapai Attorney’s Office declined to proceed with any charges against you based on lack of evidence and “reasonable likelihood of conviction” in the case.
I understand you have been having some recent employment issues due to these circumstances. Hopefully this email can now serve you in your job hunt and can be utilized if future employers have concerns over your employment with the Yavapai Food Council. My lieutenant is aware of the decline and will be reaching out to the Red Rock News to let them know the findings and overall judgement in this case so the word should be getting out about this in the news as well.
I wish you the best in your job hunt and if you have any further questions, please give me a call. Take care and have a great day!
Det. Bergstad, B. #850
Sedona Police Department
100 Roadrunner Dr.
Sedona, AZ 86336
Work#: (928)282-3100
Desk#: (928)203-5050
bbergstad@sedonaaz.gov