Lisa Sauder, who has been the CEO of Bean’s Cafe for 10 years, is no longer at the helm of Anchorage’s most well-known meal supply program for the poorest among us.
The change was known among insiders earlier this week, but the nonprofit’s website finally made it clear that Scott Lingle, chief operating officer, has been appointed interim chief executive officer, and Sauder is gone.
Bean’s Cafe has been under scrutiny with the Municipality of Anchorage since Dave Bronson took over as mayor and allegations arose over improper — possibly fraudulent — billing that Bean’s was issuing to the municipality for the management of the homeless shelter at the Sullivan Arena during the Covid pandemic. Beans was awarded about $15 million through municipal contracts to operate the Sullivan during Covid and provide meals to the homeless sheltered there. The contracts started under previous administrations of Ethan Berkowitz and Austin Quinn-Davidson, and the leftist majority on the Assembly.
Bronson’s team decided to put the contract out for a bid, and another group won the contract, forcing Beans to leave the premises. The change to the new group was widely criticized by the mainstream media, which said the new management had created chaos. Assemblyman Felix Rivera called for the continuation of the Bean’s contract in a press release in February.
But in the meantime, the Department of Law has been looking into potential double billing issues with Bean’s Cafe, Must Read Alaska has learned. Some in the municipality think that many of the services paid for were never actually provided.
In addition to providing meals for the down-and-out and chronically inebriated, Bean’s Cafe manages Children’s Lunchbox, a food service that provides between 200 and 250 meals five days a week, distributed at 13 sites across Anchorage.
“Since March 2020, thanks to generous donors we have been able to serve more than 1.6-million meals between Bean’s Cafe and The Children’s Lunchbox,” the organization says on its website.
April Mathers, the former finance manager, is also gone and no replacement has been announced.
