Paying for country club dues, luxury jet services and even a reality show competition isn’t the way you’d expect from a nonprofit nonprofit, but the CBS News Texas I-Team found tens of thousands of dollars in questionable spending by a charity that was supposed to feed low-income children.
It’s been six months since the I-Team’s initial investigation revealed that a Dallas nonprofit had secretly stopped the work it sponsored. Now the I-Team is finally taking a look at the finances to see how the grants and donations were used.
Table of Contents
How it started
For years, Hunger Busters has relied on volunteers and restaurant donations to provide a third after-school meal to thousands of Dallas Independent School District children.
Hunger hunters
Latame Phillips, a former delivery driver for the nonprofit, took over as CEO in 2023. He increased the number of board members, planned and promoted large-scale fundraising events, and managed all finances and record keeping.
Phillips served as CEO of Hunger Busters from 2023 to January 2026.
But eventually the meals stopped. The CBS News Texas investigation found that the only people using the kitchen now work for a meal prep company that makes salads and wraps for coffee shops in Dallas.
In January, Phillips acknowledged that it had been at least a year since the nonprofit last delivered meals on a regular basis.
Another nonprofit that gave Hunger Busters about $116,000 in grants is suing to get the money back. The Tyler Street Foundation requested banking records as part of the discovery process. When Phillips and his lawyer failed to turn them over, the foundation subpoenaed the banks. While discovery is protected from the public, subpoenaed information can be shared, and that’s how the I-Team obtained the statements.
“It’s just chaos.”
After CBS News Texas reviewed five years of records, the I-Team asked two nonprofit experts to do the same. Both said the spending raised serious concerns.
“I’m really at a loss for words,” said Laurie Styron, CEO of Charity Watch. “I don’t experience such bad situations very often.”
Thad Calabrese, a professor at New York University, expressed similar concerns, saying the recordings were a “sign of a suboptimal – to put it mildly – a suboptimal control system.”
For example:
- Payments of $33,125 to Million Air, a company specializing in charter flights and private hangar storage
- $14,447 in contributions to ClubCorp, a nationwide golf club membership program
- Payments of $9,500 to The Blox, a reality show competition and mentorship program for entrepreneurs
Hunger Busters’ payments to Million Air were divided equally and paid out over the course of a year. It is unclear what the payments were for, but company officials we contacted said it was unlikely the amount would be enough to cover the use of a private jet. Still, Calabrese says any type of travel expense should be subject to authorization review and properly justified.
“There better be documentation about why this is absolutely critical and the only possible way to accomplish what the organization is trying to do,” Calabrese said.
It’s also unclear why Hunger Busters paid to use the private club. According to bank records, the first payment to ClubCorp was made in October 2023 and was made monthly in varying amounts.
Styron said she’s seen large nonprofits spend money at golf clubs or country clubs to get large donations through networking, but she questioned that approach for Hunger Busters.
“Those are really the only cases where we think such transactions are justified,” Styron said. “And for a charity of this size, that’s virtually unheard of.”
The Reality Show Payments
Phillips participated in the 20th season of the week-long Blox boot camp in January 2025. In episodes posted online, Phillips claims he founded Hunger Busters, which is not true.
The former Hunger Busters CEO told the I-Team that Phillips told trustees that the show had paid him for his appearance, adding, “At no time was it communicated that this opportunity cost the organization anything.”
Blox Ventures
Bank records show Phillips paid $4,000 as a competition fee and then another $5,500 for additional mentoring and coaching.
In a statement, a spokesperson, Cassie Cregger COO of Blox Ventures, told the I-Team:
“While attending, Mr. Phillips discussed, learned about, and promoted Hunger Busters in this educational context. It could certainly be argued that a nonprofit leader’s focus on entrepreneurial education and skills development supports an organization’s broader operational mission through our programs and events.”
“What we can say with confidence is that every dollar he spent with our organization went toward legitimate entrepreneurship education programs. None of it was misappropriated, and we do not believe that participation in education programs represents an inappropriate use of professional development funds.”
Regarding awards: Mr. Phillips received recognition through one of our program awards. We want to be precise here because it is important for your reporting. The specific award he received does not come with a monetary prize. While some of our awards include financial recognition, his did not. Any statement to the contrary to its Board of Directors or otherwise would be inaccurate.
Two months after filming, Phillips used the money from “Hunger Busters” to donate $25,000 to a toy company owned by one of the show’s mentors. The woman who helped judge contestants on Phillips’ season told the I-Team that she had a written investment agreement with Phillips.
Blox Ventures
Other payments
There are pages of purchases that seem to have no obvious connection to the mission of providing brown bag meals to children. For example:
- $411.95 to a Zales jewelry store in Mesquite
- $1,834.56 to a medical boutique in Arlington
- $2,500 for tickets to InvestFest, an annual conference focusing on business, prosperity and culture
It’s unclear who else knew about the spending during Phillips’ time as CEO. He was the only one who signed the checks and made withdrawals from the accounts we saw. Experts say that alone is a warning sign.
“You don’t want the person authorizing payments to be the same person signing checks,” Calabrese said.
“Thousands of dollars in purchases for everything, the board should really be involved at a deeper level,” Styron reiterated.
Both say that without internal accounting it is difficult to get a complete overview of the finances. Six months after his resignation, Phillips has yet to turn in any paperwork. Even the IRS says it hasn’t received required financial documents in three years.
Phillips did not respond to our request for comment, but his attorney, LeDouglas Johnson, sent us this statement:
“Thank you for reaching out for comment. As you know, our firm represents the Food Foundation d/b/a Hunger Busters and Dr. Latame Phillips in the pending civil case. Because this matter is actively litigated, we will not litigate the case through the media or respond to isolated characterizations of financial records without first reviewing the specific documents, dates, amounts and context on which your request is based.
We do not believe that a stand-alone list of vendor names constitutes personal abuse or expenditure unrelated to Hunger Busters’ charitable activities, fundraising, donor relationships, or organizational activities. The respective positions of the parties will be discussed in the appropriate forum.”
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https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/golfing-jewelry-reality-show-hunger-busters-money-hungry-kids/
