Rialto Unified nutrition employees allege student food was misappropriated, given away

In the wake of allegations that Rialto Unified nutrition managers were inflating student meal counts to boost government subsidies, complaints also have emerged that excess food ordered for students was instead routinely shared by top managers with friends, family members and other employees.

The allegations were contained in a complaint by whistleblower Sarah Dunbar-Riley, a Nutrition Services supervisor, to interim Superintendent Judy White after the district reopened an investigation that originally was launched in 2023 but then abruptly halted.

In her four-page statement to White dated March 19, Dunbar-Riley alleges Nutrition Services Lead Agent Fausat Rahman-Davies repeatedly misused government food commodities and district central kitchen supplies. She also implicated Assistant Agent Maria Rangel and former Program Innovator Kristina Kraushaar in the activities.

Rahman-Davies “regularly loaded her van — or Kristina Kraushaar, and Maria Rangel’s vehicles — with large quantities of fresh produce, baked goods, and other over-ordered items to donate to her mosque and personal home supply,” Dunbar-Riley said in her statement, a copy of which was obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Dunbar-Riley alleged that Rahman-Davies engaged in the conduct on a weekly basis for at least five years — from the time she was appointed lead agent in 2019 through 2024.

Excess food restrictions

Government food commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture support student lunch and breakfast, summer meal, after-school snack and supper programs at school districts across the nation, according to the California Department of Education. Over-ordered food cannot be used for fundraisers, community events or a la carte sales, nor can it be given away to employees, friends or family members.

However, it can be transferred to other schools and districts for use. Unused food also can be donated to other organizations, including food banks, pantries and homeless shelters, under certain safety guidelines. In worst-case scenarios, when the food cannot be used or reallocated or is spoiled, it must be disposed of or destroyed according to state and federal guidelines.

Officials with the California School Nutrition Association did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Drive-up service

Dunbar-Riley and other Nutrition Services employees who spoke to the Southern California News Group on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal said that, on multiple occasions, they saw boxes of food carted out of the central kitchen warehouse on dollies and into the parking lot, where warehouse workers and other employees — at the instruction of Rahman-Davies, Kraushaar or Rangel — would load the food into personal vehicles.

Among the regulars who showed up for food, they said, was Maria Montes Torres, mother of school board member Edgar Montes and a former Nutrition Services employee who resigned on April 16 following a Southern California News Group inquiry about her son voting to hire her as a part-time cafeteria worker in August 2022, a violation of the board’s conflict of interest bylaws.

In her statement, Dunbar-Riley said Rangel would call Montes Torres often to come pick up food, citing specific dates of Aug. 25 and Sept. 28 of 2020 as examples.

Edgar Montes did not respond to a request for comment.

Dunbar-Riley also alleges another school board member was among those showing up often at the central kitchen to pick up food.

“Board member Evelyn Dominguez had her car loaded with food on multiple occasions; one occurrence was on April 28th, 2023,” Dunbar-Riley said in her statement.

Dominguez declined to comment.

Food routinely over-ordered

One Nutrition Services employee of 15 years said Rangel and Kraushaar would regularly instruct employees to prepare boxes of fresh produce and other government-issued food to give away to people who clearly were not supposed to be receiving it.

“The difference was the people in the suits and ties. You could tell they were people that didn’t need the food,” the employee said, adding that the conduct never occurred when Cindy Stone, Rahman-Davies’ predecessor, headed the department. “Ever since she (Rahman-Davies) started, that’s when it all started,” the employee said.

The employee said food was consistently over-ordered by Rahman-Davies, Kraushaar and Rangel — to the tune of about $30,000 a month, leaving the district with so much unused food that much of it was thrown away.

“We would trash pallets of apples, oranges, all kinds of mixed fruit. We threw so much food away,” said the employee, who believes food was over-ordered to bolster the amount of funding the department would receive annually from state and federal programs.

Dunbar-Riley said over-ordered food also was used at special events for which it was not intended, including annual Black History Month celebrations hosted by Nutrition Services, food pantry giveaways, and a district literacy and numeracy fair in 2023.

Another Nutrition Services employee also attested to seeing Rahman-Davies and Rangel loading food into their van or SUV on multiple occasions and thought it odd, given the department has its own vans to transport food.

“I’m like, ‘What are they doing? Where are they going? It’s government food. Why would they be putting it into their own car?’ ” the employee said. “That shouldn’t be done. It was a red flag.”

The employee also said that, on multiple occasions, Rahman-Davies’ sister also benefited from excess food.

“She would sit with Fausat in her office and, after a few minutes, there would be boxes of food waiting for her that were loaded into her car,” the employee said.

Rahman-Davies and Krausher did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Reached by telephone, Rangel declined to comment.

Initial probe halted

Dunbar-Riley’s allegations surfaced during an investigation by the Southern California News Group into the Nutrition Services department that began in December 2024. White, the interim superintendent, confirmed in early March — about a week after the school board appointed her to the temporary post — that she reopened an investigation into the alleged inflation of student meal counts that was paused last year shortly after Superintendent Cuauhtemoc Avila was abruptly placed on leave on May 8, 2024.

Ten months later, Avila was fired without cause amid sexual harassment allegations against him that he claims were trumped up.

White placed Rahman-Davies and Rangel on paid administrative leave when she revived the investigation. Kraushaar left the district in February to take a job as food services director for the Chaffey Joint Union High School District.

No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the allegations, and, thus far, there is no indication that any outside authorities are investigating them.

However, Rialto Unified spokesperson Syeda Jafri confirmed that the district is conducting a forensic audit of the meal inflation allegations as well as investigating complaints about employee mistreatment in the Nutrition Services department and “all allegations of misappropriation of food.”