Ousted Feed the Children Founders Keep up the Fight

Remember Larry Jones?  He, along with his wife Frances, were the founders of Feed the Children.  The key word is were, as the Joneses had been ousted from their positions on the board nearly two years ago.  Although we recently reported that the legal troubles between Mr. Jones and Feed the Children have ended, it appears that is no longer the case.  In a story just published on The NonProfit Times, we have learned that Mr. and Mrs. Jones have just filed a lawsuit against the current owners of the charity, and their family.  The suit alleges they had a hand in removing them from their positions.  Here is an excerpt from the piece:

Claiming tortuous interference, defamation and civil conspiracy, the lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Oklahoma County District Court naming David Green as a chief defendant along with his sons Mart Green and Steve Green, and grandson David Tyler Green.


David Green is the founder and owner of the Fortune 500 company Hobby Lobby, a retail chain of arts and crafts stores. Mart Green is founder of Mardel, a chain of Christian bookstores.


The Joneses are seeking a cash settlement with the hope of charting a new charitable direction, said their attorney Gary Richardson. The suit seeks “more than $75,000,” which usually means the parties are seeking in the millions of dollars.


“If we could get back Feed the Children that would be fine, but I think there is already too much water under the bridge. I think what the Joneses have in mind is to start another charity focusing on feeding children,” said Richardson during a phone interview with The NonProfit Times.


Jones alleges that after being summoned to a meeting with Mart Green in July of 2009, Green wanted to “rescue,” the charity, even though Jones believed that charity did not need any kind of saving.


“During the meeting,” said Larry Jones, “Green told me that he had ‘stuff’ on me, and that after a dinner he’d organize benefiting the organization, he would present me with a plague honoring my service, and then he wanted me to simply ride off into the sunset. I then turned to him and said, ‘sorry, I’m going to have to fight you on this’.”

Very interesting stuff, indeed.  Hats off to Sam Fanburg, one of our writers here.  I heard him on the phone all day getting information for this story.  You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.