Vera Liddell, a former food service director for Illinois' Harvey School District 152, entered a guilty plea to the theft of chicken wings valued at $1.5 million. 
An audit revealed the fraud, which entailed placing orders for more than 11,000 packs of chicken wings between 2020 and 2022. Liddell was given a nine-year jail term after being found guilty of conducting a criminal organization and stealing. August 9th, according to the New York Post, she was scheduled.
As we previously documented, Liddell spent over 10 years working for the financially struggling school system. It was during the COVID-19 epidemic that she came up with the plan to pilfer frozen meals meant for children enrolled in remote learning programs.
Investigators believe she sold the frozen wings, however it's unclear what she did with the items.
According to court documents, "the massive fraud began at the height of COVID during a time when students were not allowed to be physically present in school," WGN said. "The school district continued to provide meals for the students that their families could pick up, even though the children were learning remotely."
Liddell picked up the items in a district cargo van after placing an order for more than 11,000 boxes of chicken wings from Gordon Food Service, the school district's food supplier, according to court documents.
According to court documents, "the food was never brought to the school or provided for the students." Prosecutors claim the meal was paid for using district monies.
Surveillance footage showing Liddell appearing into Gordon Food Service to pick up cases of food was found during an inquiry. The school district, according to the prosecutors, doesn't offer chicken wings as they have bones in them.
In January 2022, Liddell was exposed during a standard mid-year audit. At that point, the district's business manager found that the food service division had exceeded its yearly budget by nearly $300,000.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that she was accused with felony financial crimes enterprise and criminal theft over $1,000,000.