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DOJ Spent $8 per Cup of Coffee, $16 per Muffin, $32 Each on Cracker Jacks & Popcorn at Conferences

  • Spence Cooper
  • September 22, 2011

A new report on food and beverage costs issued in September of this year, details the “extravagant” spending of both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations.

The report issued by the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded that with service charges, taxes and indirect costs, many of the meals and refreshments at DOJ (Department of Justice) conferences appeared to be extravagant and wasteful and exceeded department cost limits.

For example, one conference had a luncheon for 120 attendees that cost $53 per person, and another conference had a $60,000 reception that included platters of Swedish meatballs at a cost of nearly $5 per meatball.

According to NPR:

“At a Washington, D.C., legal conference, the department spent $4,200 on 250 muffins” or more than $16 apiece.”

DOJ Spent  per Cup of Coffee,  per Muffin,  Each on Cracker Jacks & Popcorn at Conferences“At another conference, the department’s Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee cost more than $1 an ounce.”

“A lunch at a conference in San Francisco cost ‘$76 per person.’ At the same conference, ‘attendees received Cracker Jacks, popcorn, and candy bars at a single break that cost $32 per person.'”

“One conference served Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres that cost $7.32 per serving.”

“Coffee and tea at [some] events cost between $0.62 and $1.03 an ounce. At the $1.03 per-ounce price, an 8-ounce cup of coffee would have cost $8.24.”

According to an NPR analysis, DOJ spent about $490,000 on food and beverages at the conferences” more than 10 percent of the $4.4 million total cost of the events. The department hosted or participated in 1,832 conferences in 2008 and 2009, costing $121 million.

Bear in mind that as this extravagant spending on refreshments takes place in Washington, a record 44.7 Million Americans are on food stamp, and about 46.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 6, are living in poverty. That’s up from 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent, in 2009. It was the highest level since 1983.

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