Calif. Free Meal Program Probed LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Millions of dollars in federal money meant to pay for meals for California's poor children were instead used for vacations, clothing, tuition and vehicles, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found. The state Department of Education has been negligent in its oversight of the $168 million program that distributes money to nonprofit groups, the USDA's report said. ``The California Department of Education fostered a lax environment in which ... sponsors could personally enrich themselves through various questionable or fraudulent schemes which they could perpetrate with little likelihood of detection,'' the report, released last week, found. The USDA questioned the spending of $5.5 million from 1995 to 1998. California's program, the largest in the country, reimburses day care centers for up to two meals and a snack a day for each child. Criminal charges have been filed against 15 people, including a Los Angeles couple accused of using funds to pay for everything from a 5,000-square-foot home to ski trips and their children's schooling. State officials say they have instituted changes. ``I think that sometimes not as much attention was paid to the integrity aspects of the program as it was to the nutritional health aspects,'' said Kathy Lewis, state deputy superintendent for Child, Youth and Family Services.
