FORT DAVIS — Board members for the nonprofit Mobile Comunidad have halted several of its programs after they discovered the organization was broke and had no way to pay its employees for past work, according to Board President Todd Jagger. He penned a letter to the editor on the nonprofits status.
Jagger said the organization — which provides free lunches to Fort Davis ISD students — will continue with its school lunch program but has halted its hospitality academy and restaurant/lodge, with employees left unpaid for at least a month’s worth of work.
Jagger said the nonprofit was not properly informed of the financial situation by its executive director, Jeanine Southerland, and after she retired, the board discovered a bank account with $32. (Southerland, initially under the byline Jeanine Bishop, wrote several articles in the past year for The Big Bend Sentinel.)
“It is particularly heartbreaking and angering about the staff,” Jagger wrote in his letter. “These are our friends and neighbors, hourly wage workers who did nothing but show up day after day with a smile for all and working hard at their jobs. That’s wrong on every level. Getting them paid is our priority, and we have applied for grant funding to do so, but that funding is not assured.”
Southerland could not be immediately reached for comment, but she previously defended her work at the nonprofit and said the board was well aware of its financial situation. Expected grant revenue could have kept Mobile Comunidad afloat and pay employees, she said.
