BackPack Program: No theft of funds

Officials refute social media allegations that thousands of dollars are missing

Blair County Community Action Program board members Monday said there has been no theft of funds from the agency's Mountain Lion BackPack Program, despite social media allegations that hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen -- and despite the program's recent pleas for desperately needed contributions.

"There is no missing money from the Mountain Lion BackPack Program," said board member Dave Ellis. "All indications are that the (social media) post is inaccurate."

"It's a bunch of crap on Facebook," said Community Action Board President Lisa Hann. "Someone's making stuff up."

The board is dealing with a personnel issue that is not connected with the BackPack Program, Ellis said, referring to an issue that may have led to the social media postings. That personnel issue isn't connected with any missing money and "to the best of my knowledge," there is no missing money problem in the Community Action Program as a whole, Hann said.

Both Hann and Ellis declined to go into detail about the personnel issue.

The Community Action and Backpack Program websites both included notices Monday stating: "the rumors that there are missing funds from the Mountain Lion BackPack Program are untrue."

The BackPack Program is running low on funds because of inflation and because "some funding we hoped for didn't materialize," Hann said.

Program leaders are hopeful that a change in policy at the Altoona Area School District will make more funding available for the BackPack Program, which provides backpacks full of food on the weekends to any students who ask, Hann said.

Until recently, the district provided the program with data on how many students in the district qualified for free and reduced cost lunches, Hann said.

That information wasn't specific enough for some income-based grant programs, Hann said.

The current district administration is willing to provide income level information on those students who actually take the backpacks -- without providing their names to the program, Hann said.

Blair CAP also is not seeking to turn over its operations, including the BackPack Program, to the Center for Community Action, an organization headquartered in Everett, Bedford County -- with offices also in Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin and Somerset counties -- despite an allegation sent to the Mirror that Blair CAP may be interested in doing so, according to Hann.

Hann did, however, meet recently with officials from the Center for Community Action to obtain "some of their expertise in areas we're short on," Hann said. "Not to merge the entities," Hann said. She declined to specify what areas of expertise the parties discussed.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.