A non-profit fed thousands of hungry Dallas ISD students. A CBS News Texas investigation found, when the work stopped, the fundraising didn't.
"Feeding kids. Fueling futures." That's the motto of Hunger Busters, a small but well-connected nonprofit in West Dallas.
The idea is to provide a sandwich and sides at the end of the school day to thousands of "food-insecure" Dallas Independent School District students who might not otherwise get dinner at home. A CBS News Texas investigation, though, found that's no longer happening.
Hunger Busters' history: the restaurant tycoon & the recognition
Restaurateur Phil Romano, the man behind popular chains including Macaroni Grill, Fuddrucker's, and Eatzi's, founded Hunger Busters 25 years ago.
Over the years, as dozens of notable figures have sat on its board, the organization has formed strong community connections, partnering with the Dallas Police Department for food giveaways, holding black-tie fundraisers with local chefs, and receiving recognition from publications like the Dallas Business Journal, as recently as December.
Big companies have donated money to the cause and many people have donated their time.
In 2023, Mayor Eric Johnson even signed a proclamation declaring May 25 as Hunger Busters Day in Dallas.
That same year, Latame Phillips, a one-time delivery driver at the non-profit, took over as CEO.
"Whatever you make that morning, it goes into a kid's belly that night," said Phillips in a news interview last May. "And we feed about 3,500 kids every day."
Online, Phillips has shared stories of growing up poor, missing meals, and his wish to feed more children.
"I look at the kids that we serve, and they remind me of myself," he said.
How $116,000 in grants led to a lawsuit
In 2024, Phillips applied for a grant from the Tyler Street Foundation to buy a van, which he said would allow Hunger Busters to deliver even more meals.
"We made three site visits, saw the facility where they packed the meals, saw the great big insulated bags that they said they transported the meals in. We were thrilled to partner with them," said Vivian Skinner, the foundation's president.
The foundation was still working on that first grant when, Skinner says, another need became apparent.
"Suddenly, these posts started appearing that said 'Urgent! Urgent! Help us save our building!'" she said.
According to Hunger Busters' social media accounts, its building was in "immediate danger of being sold," and it needed $1.2 million to purchase the property.
"Our grant administrator spoke with Latame Phillips, and he explained he didn't actually have to raise $1.2 million; he just needed to raise $750,000 because his bank would extend a line of credit for $750... So we made a challenge grant. If you can get to 700, we'll finish it out," explained Skinner.
In all, the foundation says, it gave Hunger Busters $116,200 to buy both the van and the land.
Skinner, though, says it took Phillips months to provide documentation of the purchases.
When he finally did, she got suspicious.
"This is the day that he presented the van to us," said Skinner, looking at pictures from a photo op in June of 2025 showing her standing with Phillips in front of a white van.
"And there was just a magnetic sign stuck on it that said 'Tyler Street Foundation supports Hunger Busters.' We really began to be curious. There was just something about that day that seemed off," Skinner said.
Skinner's team began doing their own research and made their first big discovery.
The van he'd shown them, they say, didn't belong to Hunger Busters.
The license plate, visible in the pictures, Skinner says, traces back to a van belonging to Enterprise Rentals out of Irving, which she believes Phillips rented for the day.
In a lawsuit, the Tyler Street Foundation has also alleged the vehicle sales agreement and insurance policy Phillips provided were fake, using a vehicle identification number that traces back to a 20-year-old Dodge Ram pickup, not a van.
The foundation said it also looked into the land Phillips claimed Hunger Busters had bought with the grant money.
"All we did was go to the Dallas County Appraisal District website and look it up. And it had never changed hands. It was now 11 months since we gave him the money, and it supposedly finished out the campaign to purchase it," said Skinner.
The lawsuit accuses Phillips of forging the property deed and title insurance to make it seem he had bought the property.
"Then, we began to wonder if he was really feeding kids," she said.
When did the meals stop? CBS News Texas investigates.
For four weeks in November and December, the CBS News Texas I-Team sat outside the Hunger Busters' office on Sylvan Avenue, monitoring the activity there.
Phillips appeared a few times, but there was no sign of volunteers present or brown bag meals, images Hunger Busters has presented on social media accounts.
The food that was seen leaving the building, the I-Team discovered, came from a company renting out the space to make ready-to-eat meals for high-end coffee shops.
A manager for that company said in the eight months it's been operating at the location, Hunger Busters hasn't used the space on a regular basis.
The I-Team also looked into the 11 schools Phillips listed as recipients of meals in his application to the Tyler Street Foundation, calling those he wrote Hunger Busters "currently… provides meals to."
Every single one reported it had been at least a year, though often longer, since Hunger Busters had delivered meals there.
Sources familiar with the organization's workings acknowledged to CBS News Texas that its operations were disrupted when schools shut down for COVID-19.
It's unclear how many deliveries it was able to resume making or for how long.
In an email responding to questions about the schools, Phillips told CBS News Texas that Hunger Busters, "never publicly listed by name any campus that we directly deliver meals (to)."
Besides, he said, while "Hunger Busters previously provided meals directly on certain school campuses," the model had changed to "support afterschool programs, churches, community-based organizations, and partner non-profits."
He wouldn't name those organizations either, saying he didn't want to risk inadvertently identifying or stigmatizing the children they serve.
Phillips declined an on-camera interview.
Approached outside the Hunger Busters building, he refused to answer most questions.
Asked when the daily meal deliveries ended, he initially said "about a year ago," then said he wasn't sure.
It's unclear how much money Hunger Busters raised in 2025, but the I-Team found documentation of at least $175,000 in grants and donations, not including what it brought in through its annual gala and other events.