Balanced Nutrition: In the beginning

Posted on by

Mark Robinson and Yolanda Hill’s second foray into the business world has left them with two sets of lawyers and an investigation that may up-end Mark’s quest for the governorship.  Yolanda and Mark have operated Balanced Nutrition since 2015.  Since 2017, the non-profit has been working with the NC DHHS-administered CACFP program to partially reimburse eligible day care centers for lunches fed to poor children.  Yolanda gave two conflicting reasons for deciding to close Balanced Nutrition earlier this year.

A partial review of Balanced Nutrition’s records — transactions with ten clients during the first quarter of 2024 — determined that the Robinsons owed the state more than $132,000.  Yolanda and Mark lawyered up once to negotiate the terms of conducting the review. Since the $132,000 determination was revealed, Mark and Yolanda have brought on a second set of lawyers to  negotiate with NC DHHS officials for an “informal conference” to discuss the review’s findings.  NC DHHS sources tell us that negotiations for a date to hold the “informal conference” are still on-going. 

Meanwhile, we’ve decided to offer our readers an in-depth look at Balanced Nutrition — the source of all of this controversy.  We obtained a copy of the 132-page application Yolanda filled out and submitted to DHHS in order to enroll Balanced Nutrition in the child-lunch reimbursement program. All of us have heard the allegations against Mark and Yolanda.  Now, you can evaluate them in context with copies of official documents filled out and signed by Yolanda Hill — and sometimes Mark Robinson himself. (Click here to read or download the pdf version of the application. For a much easier reading experience, right click on the link to download the file.)

Mark Robinson’s involvement.  So far, there have been conflicting stories about Robinson’s level of involvement in Balanced Nutrition.  In his memoir, he admitted to working at Balanced Nutrition prior to beginning his campaign for lieutenant governor.  The book appears to indicate that he left the company around June of 2019.  If you flip to page 29 of the application packet Yolanda submitted, you will see Mark’s name and signature and his employee designation as “staff.”  That particular page / document was signed and dated on November 7, 2016.  

So, judging by the details in the application packet and Mark’s memoir, it can be determined that his time as an employee of Balanced Nutrition ran from November 2016 through June 2019.

It’s all relative. (Or IS it?)  Yolanda submitted the following organizational chart (from p. 45 in the application) to NC DHHS officials:

This chart, too, was submitted in November 2016.  Now let’s refer to page 51 in the application packet.

These were the first board members for Balanced Nutrition. Notice the third column from the right. It asks if any of the board members are related to anyone else on the board or working for the company. Tuwanda Brunson is Yolanda Hill’s sister.  So, it would be false to say that she is not related to anyone else on the board or any employee.  Obviously, Yolanda would also be related to Tuwanda. 

Let’s take this chart a little further.  Look back at the organizational chart we discussed a little earlier. Mark Robinson was identified as an employee.  Obviously, he would be related to Yolanda.  Tuwanda would be his sister-in-law.  Cassaundra Spinks, also included in the organizational chart, is mother to Tuwanda Brunson and Yolanda Hill.  She is also Mark Robinson‘s mother-in-law.

So, we appear to have several false statements on Balanced Nutrition’s initial application to work for the State of North Carolina.

Redemption?  So, we’ve learned that Yolanda Hill stated on her initial application to DHHS that she was not related to her husband (Mark Robinson), her sister (Tuwanda Brunson), or Cassaundra Spinks (her mother).

You may remember that Yolanda went public with an allegation that the DHHS review of Balanced Nutrition was part of some sort of “political vendetta”:

[…] In an interview with WRAL on Thursday, Hill alleged that she and her organization had also received undue scrutiny from a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services employee. Hill purported that the attention was due in part to her connection to Robinson.

Balanced Nutrition helps adult or child care centers in the Triad area that qualify for federal food subsidies. The DHHS regulates health-related nonprofits that participate in federal programs. The DHHS is run by an appointee of Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. Robinson is a right-wing Republican who has the backing of former President Donald Trump.

According to Hill, a DHHS employee in February 2023 circulated to colleagues Hill’s social media photos showing her next to Robinson. “She screenshot a picture from my personal Facebook page,” Hill said. “I didn’t know her, didn’t know personally. She was not a friend of mine.”

Hill added: “She used her state cell phone to send that picture to her colleagues on their state cell phones, telling them: ‘Look who this is. Look who her husband is. Her husband is Mark Robinson.” The employee told colleagues that Hill had misled her about her husband’s identity, Hill alleged.

The person who purportedly circulated those images was DHHS Child Nutrition Assistant Joyce Bonner, according to Hill. Bonner was later in charge of reviewing Balanced Nutrition. The case was assigned to a different specialist in March 2023, DHHS said. […]

Ms. Bonner may very well have had a point. If you go to page 1 of the linked 132-page application, Joyce Bonner is IDed as the point of contact for  Hill and Balanced Nutrition as they began their run with DHHS.  If you flip to page 51 of the application (or the above matrix), you will see that Hill claims to not be related to ANY of Balanced Nutrition‘s board members or employees.

If you look at the organizational chart (shown above or on page 45 of the application), you will see that Mark Robinson is IDed as “staff” for Balanced Nutrition.  So, Yolanda Hill has signed her name to a government form stating she is not related to Mark Robinson.  The form was signed and submitted in 2016.  Mark and Yolanda were married in 1990. 

Enough Audits?  We found one independent audit among the files on Balanced Nutrition kept at the DHHS offices in Raleigh.   If you flip to page 98 on the linked application packet, you will see that DHHS requires one audit for every year where revenue meets or exceeds $500,000.

According to a survey of Balanced Nutrition’s reporting to the IRS, the firm surpassed the $500,000 revenue benchmark every year from 2018 to 2022.

The one audit we found — which the Robinson campaign’s spokes-parrot has been tossing around — was for budget year 2021 but completed in 2023.  (So, we’re pretty confident that we’ve got all the audits Team Robinson has.)  

According to the DHHS application, Balanced Nutrition should have completed audits for five consecutive years.  They – apparently – only got ONE done.

Balanced Nutrition was placed on the state’s DO NOT PAY list in 2021 for “failure to submit documents.”  Could these audits be what led to that move? 

An encore performance with NC DHHS?  Mark Robinson has been quoted in the media suggesting that he and his wife abandoned their daycare business out of frustration with “red tape.”

The daycare on Randleman Road in Greensboro operated for about six years.  It can be inferred, from reading Robinson’s memoir, that Yolanda kept children in their home for about two years.

If you browse to page 44 of the linked application packet, you’ll find some entries indicating that Mark Robinson had six years experience with CACFP and Yolanda Hill had eight years experience. (Remember, this application was filled out just as Balanced Nutrition was getting started with the state.)

CACFP is the federally-funded program managed by NC DHHS which reimburses daycare center for lunches provided to needy kids. Balanced Nutrition’s revenue came via CACFP funds administered by DHHS.

So, it appears Robinson and Hill did business with DHHS for about an overlapping combined eight years prior to starting Balanced Nutrition.  If the “red tape” with the daycare center was so frustrating, why did they come back to DHHS and even more “red tape”?