Charity Founded By Forbes GOP Pharma MeglaMillionaire John Gregory Latest Victim of Bush Economy

[doeriver]

I noticed that a recent Johnson City Press article fails to mention the prior history of the KIngsway Charities d.b.a. King Benevolent Fund & Tennessee GOPer/Pharma MegaMillionaire John M. Gregory;

Story published: 01-07-2009
Updated January 06, 2009 11:09:15 PM

Another Wall Street casualty: Bristol food distribution program ceases operation

By Sue Guinn Legg
Press Staff Writer
[e-mail]

Decimated by last year’s Wall Street crash, Kingsway Charities of Bristol has closed its Lord’s Storehouse, a food distribution program that for the past 10 years has passed along more than 12 million pounds of food annually to church pantries and nonprofit feeding agencies across the five-state region.

Supported by a private endowment fund hit hard by the stock market decline, Kingsway shut down its food distribution operations Jan. 1 and began notifying the churches and nonprofit agencies it supports by telephone on Jan. 2.

“It’s not easy for us. It breaks our hearts to do it but we had to in order to keep our doors open here for as long as we possibly can,” Kingsway’s Director of Operations Albert Hester said on Tuesday.

“There’s no question the ministries we serve are going to have some difficult times.”

In addition to The Lord’s Storehouse, Kingsway also closed its Widow’s Mite ministry that serves about 45 extremely low income widows and its Face of God ministry that supplements charitable youth programs across the region. The Kingsway International Medical Ministry that provides medicines to Third World countries will continue operating from the Bristol facility with a staff has been downsized from 16 to six employees.

“Due to the major losses on Wall Street in 2008, the endowment that funds Kingsway Charities operational cost has lost much of its value. This has forced us to take the appropriate steps necessary to keep Kingsway Charities from closing its doors altogether,” Hester said in a prepared statement also released on Tuesday.

“Since we have to match our budget expenses to our income this difficult decision had to be made. Our concerns and prayers are with the ministries we have served and the thousands of families that depend upon them.”

...

Since beginning operations in 1998 through a private endowment established by the Gregory family, the Lord’s Storehouse has provided between 12 million and 16 million pounds of food annually to churches and nonprofit agencies in Southwest Virginia, Northeast Tennessee, Western North Carolina and Southern West Virginia, or more food than the Second Harvest food banks of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia combined.

“The endowment was set up in such a way that it would not be not be a drain, so that it would be self supporting. And it worked for nearly 10 years. But with the near collapse of the stock market late last year, our endowment was all but decimated,” Hester said.

“We were an enabler for churches and others. But due to Wall Street losses, the fund lost so much value we had to tighten our belts and take the steps that were necessary to prevent us from closing entirely. This is just some of the fallout from economic market.”

In addition to prayers for the churches and charitable ministries it has supplemented, Hester said Kingsway is encouraging communities throughout the region to support those organizations through monetary donations and food drives. “It’s going to be very difficult for them,” he said.

Too bad, I suppose for all thode poor people relying on the Kingsway food banks this winter --- at least the people aeound Bristol were provided with free admission to a Christian-Christian music concert (although the funds for the Christmas concert might have actually been paid for a Gregory brother and his wife rather than Kingsway):

Bristol Family Brings Christian Singer to Town for Free Concert; Shuttle Service Available

TOM NETHERLAND | SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER
Published: December 18, 2008

BRISTOL, Tenn.—Superstar gospel singer CeCe Winans has fans all over the world. But just maybe her biggest fan lives right here in the Tri-Cities.

To wit, Joe Gregory.

“I bought her new CD <“Thy Kingdom Come”>,” said Gregory, “and my wife and I loved it so much we thought, ‘Gee, why not bring her to Bristol?’ ”

And so the nine-time Grammy Award-winning gospel singer will appear at Viking Hall in Bristol, Tenn. on Dec. 20. Winans comes with two more Grammy nominations in hand, Christmas in her heart and in about half the songs she will sing.

“We’ll definitely come together and do everybody’s favorite Christmas songs,” Winans said by phone Tuesday afternoon from her home in Forest Hills, Tenn. “I celebrate Christmas all year ‘round.”

Now get this. Thanks to Gregory, Winans’ show is free of charge. Not cheap to bring her, but then consider the Gregory family and its past connections with Bristol-based King Pharmaceuticals, a Fortune 500 company.

“I’m one of the co-founders,” Gregory said recently by phone while en route to his office in downtown Bristol. “I was vice-chairman of King until my retirement in 2003. We have the Kingsway Charities, and we do a lot of good through Kingsway.”

And so this way comes Winans. She’s sold millions of albums, performed for several presidents and the Pope, and calls such famous folks as Whitney Houston and Oprah Winfrey friend.

“Wow,” Winans said of her career, “it’s mind-boggling.”

So, merry Christmas Bristol.

“First of all, we love living in this area,” Gregory said. “We think it’s a great community. We like to spread a little bit of Christmas cheer and Christmas spirit. We felt like people need a little extra cheer this year, so we are bringing CeCe to town.”

Listen to Winans’ music. Nary a negative word peeks into her nearly 25 years of recorded music.

“I’m honored to do what I do, bring messages of love and hope and peace,” Winans said. “Yes, I feel like Christian music is the best place you can find positive music, but there’s a lot of positive songs out there.”

Just look to her recent album, “Thy Kingdom Come.” Sure, it moved the Gregorys, but it’s also moved roughly a million others, too.

“It’s very powerful,” she said. “The songs remind us who we are. They remind us of the power of Jesus Christ. We have to understand who we are.”

While music for some may reside in the background, for others music has proven something akin to a lifeline. Winans said that beyond the gold and platinum albums on her walls, the fame and the fortune, the power of music coupled with her faith keeps all of that in check.

O.K. Winans in (temporarily), food bank out (permanently)...but I digress. I seem to recall that KIngsway was at one time operating as the King Benevolent Fund:

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP
In re King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation

http://www.kingsecuritiessettlement.com/

...

Securities fraud class action brought on behalf of purchasers of King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("King") common stock on the open market from February 16, 1999 through March 10, 2003 ("Class Period"), including all persons who acquired King common stock pursuant to, or traceable to King's public offering in November 2001 and any persons or entities who exchanged their shares of Jones Pharma Inc. for shares of King in August 2000.

King is a pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, markets and sells branded prescription pharmaceutical products.  Plaintiffs allege that during the Class Period, King failed to properly reimburse Medicaid and other government pricing programs over $46.5 million.  Plaintiffs also allege that King manufactured sales to a related party, the King Benevolent Fund, an entity controlled by King's management, late in the quarter to ensure that King met its sales and earnings targets for the quarter.  King failed to disclose these transactions until after March 11, 2003 when it announced that the SEC was investigating the Company.

Court Grants Final Approval of $38.25 Million Settlement in King Securities Litigation

More info about Kingsway Charities/King Benevolent Fund:
Kingsway Charities/ King Benevolent Fund

[doeriver]

1. Congratulations!: Palm Beach Atlantic University - Gregory is 2008 American Free Enterprise Medal Re...

But will PBAU ask for their medals back after the Gregory charities shutdown?

Palm Beach Atlantic University - Gregory is 2008 American Free Enterprise Medal Recipient



Gregory is 2008 American Free Enterprise Medal Recipient

The University will present its 2008 American Free Enterprise Medal to John M. Gregory, managing partner of SJ Strategic Investments, LLC. SJ Strategic Investments is a private, family-owned investment vehicle with a diverse portfolio of public and private investments.

The medal ceremony is set for 10:45 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Rubin Arena of the Greene Complex for Sports & Recreation, 1100 S. Dixie Hwy. in West Palm Beach. The ceremony is free and open to the public. For more information, call 561-803-2010.

The driving force behind SJ Strategic Investments, Gregory founded three other successful businesses with his entrepreneurial family before establishing this company. In 2002, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, honored as the national winner in the Health Sciences category.

“We believe our success stems from a strong foundation in faith and family, which has allowed us to grow, explore, take risks, and pursue adventure while sustaining stability,” says Gregory. 

Gregory is the president of The Lazarus Foundation and manages this benevolent fund with his wife, Joan. He is also the founder and president of the Kingsway Charities, an international benevolent medication ministry. 

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in pharmacy, Gregory moved to Bastian, Va., where he opened the town’s first retail pharmacy. Seeing an opportunity to expand, in 1984, John co-founded General Injectables and Vaccines (GIV), a company that supplied injectables and vaccine products directly to physicians’ offices. As president and CEO, he turned GIV into a successful enterprise with 550 employees and annual revenues exceeding $150 million per year.

Then, in 1993, with a small initial investment in their pockets and a lot of debt on their shoulders, Gregory and his brothers purchased a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Bristol, Tenn. Under his leadership as chairman and CEO, King Pharmaceuticals grew from a 90-employee family business to an S&P 500 Index company on the New York Stock Exchange with revenues exceeding $1 billion.

...

American Free Enterprise Day has been an event at Palm Beach Atlantic since 1984. Previous medal recipients include Karl H. Watson, CEMEX, 2007; Stuart W. Epperson, Salem Communications Corporation, 2004; Sam Moore, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2003; Joseph R. Gregory, Kingsway L.L.C., 2002; ...

[doeriver]

2. Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee to fill five-state food bank gap

Story published: 01-10-2009
Updated January 09, 2009 09:06:04 PM

Second Harvest hopes to fill food bank gap

By Sue Guinn Legg
Press Staff Writer
[e-mail]

Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee is joining Feeding America food banks across the five-state region to fill the gap created by the recent closing of The Lord’s Storehouse in Bristol.

Kingway’s Charities closed the regional food distribution ministry Jan. 1 after late 2008 stock market losses decimated the private, family endowment that had provided more than 12 million pounds of food annually to about 150 charitable agencies across the region.

Rhonda Chafin, executive director of Second Harvest of Northeast Tennessee, and representatives of Second Harvest Food Bank of Southwest Virginia met with Kingsway’s Director of Operations Albert Hester on Friday to begin planning a response.

Chafin said the two Tri-Cities area food banks and Kingsway will continue discussions next week with the Feeding America food banks of Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. The food banks will be contacting agencies in their service regions previously included in the 1 million to 1.5-million pound monthly distribution by the Lord’s Storehouse in an attempt to identify high-need areas, Chafin said.

A conference call between the food banks and about 100 church pantries and charitable agencies that were previously received assistance from both Second Harvest and The Lord’s Storehouse has been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 27.

Chafin estimated about 30 percent, or 60 of the 200 agencies in the eight counties of Northeast Tennessee served by Second Harvest, also were receiving food from Kingsway. She said the food bank will work with those agencies to replace the lost supply and to make sure food is available to the people the agencies serve.

“We had a very good meeting with Kingsway and we’re coming together to make sure all the gaps are filled and the agencies carry on,” Chafin said.

“Looking over the agencies, definitely the majority, about 100, were already with the Feeding America food banks. We will be talking with each of them about the amount of food they were getting and the food they may need.”

In an attempt to meet that need and the overall increase in the need for food anticipated in 2009, Second Harvest of NET has set its food distribution goal 2.5-million pounds higher than last year’s record 4.8-million-pound distribution.

Chafin said food bank plans to meet that goal through increased sourcing and purchasing and through food drives and monetary donations from the community.

...

More information about Second Harvest of NET is available on line at www.netfoodbank.org