North Carolina GOP governor candidate blasts public spending as nonprofit rakes in taxpayer funds

In his bid to become North Carolina’s first Black governor, Republican Mark Robinson assails government safety net spending as a “plantation of welfare and victimhood" that has mired generations of Black people in “dependency” and poverty.

But the lieutenant governor's political rise wouldn't have been possible without it.

Over the past decade, Robinson's household has relied on income from Balanced Nutrition Inc., a nonprofit founded by his wife, Yolanda Hill, that administered a free lunch program for North Carolina children. The organization, funded entirely by taxpayers, has collected roughly $7 million in government funding since 2017, while paying out at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson, and other members of their family, tax filings and state documents show.