Executive
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday: In 2008, DOJ Pays Teens To Jar Salsa, Salad Dressing
In 2008, the Justice Department paid a windfall to the Cleveland Botanical Garden to teach teens to make and sell salsa and salad dressing.
Topline: In 2008, the Department of Justice earmarked $517,000 — $754,000 in today’s money — for the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s “Green Corps,” a summer program that teaches high schoolers how to make and sell salsa and salad dressing.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the late U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn’s Wastebook 2008 included 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the $517,000 wasted in Cleveland.
Key facts: Teenagers participating in the Green Corps worked together to produce 6,000 jars of “Ripe From Downtown” salsa, which were then sold for $5 per jar, according to news reports from the time.
Other program objectives included learning the difference between rice and quinoa and deciding which spices taste best on vegetables.
The program had 55 participants, meaning the DOJ spent over $9,400 on each Cleveland student. Adjusted for inflation, that’s almost $14,000 per student — which would have been enough to pay for a semester of tuition at Cleveland State University last year.
Background: 2008 was not the only time the Cleveland Botanical Garden received tranches of questionable taxpayer funding.
In 2023, the state spent $23.2 million on Ohio Arts Economic Relief grants. The second largest of 139 grants went to the Cleveland Botanical Garden: $671,000, with top priorities including funding field trips for third-graders.
The botanical garden charges visitors for parking, which some have called a violation of the use of the garden’s public land; it uses 10 acres of space donated to the city in 1882 to be “open to all.” The debate went all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, where the botanical garden won its case.
Summary: There’s certainly nothing wrong with the DOJ supporting juvenile justice programs, but perhaps there’s a more efficient way to keep kids off the streets than paying $517,000 for high-end salsa production.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.
Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.
Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski lives in Hinsdale, Illinois with his wife Kerry and three daughters. He is a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and has finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
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