Balanced Nutrition’s $100k+ debt to taxpayers: no payments received, gone to collections

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We’ve been tracking Balanced Nutrition – a non profit contractor to the NC Department of Health & Human Services (NC DHHS) run by former Second Lady Yolanda Hill and staffed by family friends and various members of the Robinson family — for more than a year.  If you aren’t caught up on the details, click HERE for a refresher. 

You may recall a bit of drama that occurred just prior to the start of last year’s gubernatorial campaign.  Hill claimed she wanted to end her professional relationship with NC DHHS for two reasons: (1) to spend more time on the campaign trail with her husband, then-Lt. Governor and GOP nominee Mark Robinson, and (2) she was tired of being *harrassed* by the DHHS because her husband was the Republican lieutenant governor.

A financial review – typical for a relationship closeout – occurred.  Just reviewing a handful of Balanced Nutrition‘s interactions with a handful of clients for the first quarter of 2024 uncovered $101,142.05 in mishandled taxpayer funds.  

(Based on our research and the documents we’ve seen: if the review had continued and been expanded, we believe the debt amount would be significantly larger.)

Hill and Balanced Nutrition were ordered to pay that sum back to the government.  Lots of arguments, hearings, and lawyering-up occurred. The governor’s race ended – mercifully – and  Mark Robinson and Yolanda Hill quietly returned to private life in Guilford County.

The funds in question were initially appropriated by the  US Department of Agriculture to the NC Department of Health & Human Services.  NC DHHS took the lead in trying to recover the money.  Balanced Nutrition was reportedly hit with an invoice and two demand letters.  Yolanda Hill, Kimberly Cephas (Hill and Robinson’s daughter), and Renee Matthews-Jones (a family friend) were IDed as the responsible parties. 

Today, a spokesperson for NC DHHS told us that, as of today:

[…] no payments have been received, and the balance has gone to collections.[…]