Charity in Federal Government’s Drive Keeps Mum on Which Programs It Supports

The 12 Arizona charities that employ officials who work for the Don Stewart Association religious

organization take great pains to say they are completely separate from the Stewart organization and its official affiliate, Feed My People Children’s Charities.

But several of the charities say they sometimes work with Feed My People Children’s Charities, and records show they have financed the Stewart affiliate.

From 2002 to 2005, five of the 12 Arizona groups have provided Feed My People Children’s Charities with $612,191 in cash, according to the groups’ informational tax returns. In addition, from 2003 to 2005 four of the Arizona groups contributed $647,055 to Feed My People International, which is a name used around the world by Feed My People Children’s Charities.

Public information about Feed My People Children’s Charities is difficult to obtain. The organization, which seeks gifts through the annual charity drive for federal workers, says on its Web site that it provides education, clothing, food, and medical help to children and works on “health and nutritional training, community organization, micro-enterprise and sustainable gardening projects for parents of deprived children.”

From 2002 through 2005, Feed My People Children’s Charities said that all of its donations of goods — nearly $36-million in food and “various food items” — went to recipients that it did not name or provide the location for and that its lawyer, Philip S. Haney, will not identify, and said that nearly all its cash grants — more than $1.7-million — went to programs in the Philippines that it did not name.

Through the federal drive, Feed My People Children’s Charities received pledges of $158,895 in the fall of 2003 and $103,862 in the fall of 2004.

“Feed My People Children’s Charities has followed all laws, rules, and regulations governing the making of cash and noncash gifts to humanitarian programs and projects,” said Mr. Haney, “including qualified charitable donees and proper humanitarian and charitable activities in foreign locations.”