State audit: Goldsboro food bank used $11,821 in CARES Act funds on questionable expenses

On Sept. 28, the North Carolina Office of Internal Audit released a report on Goldsboro nonprofit Three in One Family Center, saying of the $15,000 in CARES Act money the organization received last year, $11,821.75 of it went to questionable expenses.

The audit said the center’s CARES Act funding was intended to go directly towards addressing hunger caused by the pandemic.

Instead, the report said Three in One spent $8,366.41 on maintenance for a personal vehicle belonging to the group’s owner, Gregory Quick, as well as a down payment to purchase another personal vehicle.

An additional $3,455.34 went to a number of other questioned expenses, including a grant writer, an Enterprise rental car, and a computer.

WRAL News reached out to Quick to ask about the audit's findings.

Quick denied the audit’s findings, specifically saying that he did not spend more than $8,000 in CARES Act funds on his personal vehicle.

The receipts Quick provided to the City of Goldsboro for his CARES Act spending said otherwise, showing a string of visits to auto body shops for repairs on his 2007 Lexus.

And in an email to city leaders last December, Quick told them he believed the city should approve those expenses because he used the personal vehicle for work with the food bank.

The Office of Internal Audit recommended that Wayne County seek repayment of the $11,821 from Three in One Family Center.

A spokesperson for the county told WRAL News those funds came from an amount they gave to the City of Goldsboro to distribute, and last week Wayne County Manager Craig Honeycutt sent the city a letter requesting repayment.

On Friday, City of Goldsboro spokesperson LaToya Henry said the city was in the process of asking the state for more information about their concerns before taking any action.

WRAL News asked Gregory Quick whether he intended to pay back the $11,821 in questioned expenses.

“I have no knowledge of what you’re talking about, of them asking me for no money,” Quick said. “Nobody’s told me anything about it.”