Food 4 Kids program changes hands

WASILLA — On Dec. 30, 2015, a work crew from the Mat-Su Food Bank removed food, shelving, utensils, and some appliances from a kitchen serving meals to children at the Boys and Girls Club of Wasilla without authorization.

Current and former officials with the Mat-Su Food Bank and the Boys and Girls Club have since given differing accounts about what was taken and why. The incident — and the largely irreconcilable accounts of the events that led to the emptying of the kitchen — casts light onto details about one of the central ways in which food is distributed to local needy children, and how donations to that organization are handled. It has also led to accusations by former employees of mishandled federal money, and false advertising.

Food 4 Kids

Lynette Ortolano managed the food bank’s Food 4 Kids program — which distributes or distributed food at 14 sites throughout the Mat-Su Borough, ranging from the Boys & Girls club kitchen to vehicle-based distribution in a local park — for several years. Over the summer of 2015, she said she noticed federal funds and contributions to the Food 4 Kids program were lumped into one general collective, which was presented to the organizations board of directors.

“We would kind of just of get this overview of the deposit amounts,” she said. “And a bottom line that said ‘We have a net income of $30,000 this month.’ When in reality, the Food 4 Kids had a net income. The pantry program, most times had a loss. So I was kind of feeling funny about that, just because I was the one that was asking for folks to be donating, and that was their intent when they donated.”

For example, figures provided by Ortolano show the profits for the Food Bank were $102,278.07 for January through September 2015. Ortolano asked the organization’s accountant to provide a list of expenditures for just the Food 4 Kids program. The figures showed a profit of $121,088.31. That means the figures provided by Ortolano (Food Bank officials dispute them) indicate that the combined other operations inside the Food Bank were operating at a loss of about $18,000.

In summer 2015, Ortolano said she tried to claim an amount from a past year as a rollover amount for her program, rather than as a general contribution for the Food Bank operations.

“When I said to the board and to our accountant and the executive director we have this carryover amount, it kind of got hostile,” she said. “It started this whole thing. ‘You’re calling us thieves. You’re trying to bankrupt the organization.’ These sorts of things. And as I tried to convince them to put better controls in place, I just kinda kept being met with resistance.”

Ortolano said she pushed for more control over her funds for two reasons. The first was that her program is federal tax dollars fund some portion of her organization’s service. The second is that she was able to solicit and obtain thousands of dollars in operating donations for Food 4 Kids, but because of the accounting procedures, was sometimes unable to be accountable to donors about how those funds were used.

“I just kept feeling this weight,” she said. “I kept asking these people for money. There’s $25,000 from Walmart in there, there’s $15,000 from Bishop’s Attic in there. But it’s going to support programs that don’t have a solid fundraising program for their agency.”

The conflict led to a decisive vote by the Mat-Su Food Bank board of directors, which ultimately decided to maintain the existing accounting standards and organization structure, rather than to set up the Food 4 Kids program as an equal partnership within the Mat-Su Food Bank. The conflict ultimately led Ortolano to resign effective Dec. 31, 2015.

“I don’t know if that was because they didn’t want to admit wrongdoing,” she said. “And I say wrongdoing very loosely because they’ve not spent federal funds on things that they shouldn’t have, just misused the funds that we’ve had.”

Food gone ‘sour’

After Ortolano announced her resignation, the Food Bank’s relationship with Ortolano grew increasingly contentious.

“From there, it went sour pretty quick,” she said.

Ortolano’s resignation also prompted state officials to accelerate an examination of the Food 4 Kids assets, according to Child Nutrition Program Manager Jo Dawson. State officials are accountable to the federal government for the federal funds, Dawson said, and the monitoring action was moved up so the state could conduct it with Ortolano in charge. Results of the monitoring weren’t yet publicly available, Dawson said.

“As people who go in and do monitoring visits, it’s hard to get documents when there is a new person present,” she said.

The state also notified the food bank that they no longer would have sites to operate under the Food 4 Kids program. The program itself, and the name, would continue under the Mat-Su Food Bank banner, but Ortolano — and the about 14 sites formerly operated by the Food 4 Kids program, and before that the Children’s Lunchbox program — would move to the Boys and Girls Club. The Food 4 Kids name would stay with the Mat-Su Food Bank, as Ortolano tells it.

“They still have the name, but they don’t have any feeding program,” Ortolano said.

On Dec. 31, Food Bank officials showed up at the Boys and Girls Club kitchen, told officials they were there to serve the meal, and began removing food and appliances.

“It was for the specific purpose of emptying that kitchen,” she said. “He (Mat-Su Food Bank executive director Eddie Izelle) took everything he could fit out the door out of that kitchen.”

They took old hairnets, food donations (some of the food was collected by the food bank). In some cases, they took things in a pointed manner, according to Howie Marks, who runs the Boys and Girls Club of Wasilla location on Bogard Road. Otalano and Marks both blame Izelle.

“He crippled our program is what he did,” Marks said.

When asked why he hadn’t involved law enforcement, Marks said the Boys and Girls Club state organization simply elected not to involve police in the matter.

Both described seemingly Grinch-like behavior.

“He took the safe food card off of the wall,” Marks said. “He did stuff like, there was a shelf with coffee and tea and stuff on it, but he knew Lynette drunk the tea, so he only took the tea.”

From Ortolano’s perspective, the loss of a few select pantry items wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the kids.

“For the next three days, when we were in there in an empty kitchen and working on folding tables, dozens of children came to that window and were kind of mortified, wondering if they were gonna eat. They were like ‘Are we gonna have dinner tomorrow?’” she said. “It’s despicable.”

The safe food card certification was eventually returned, Izelle said. About 15 pizzas and a toaster have also been returned. The remaining items have not, Ortolano said.

Ortolano and kitchen manager Heidi Wagner went shopping out of their own pocket to provide subsequent meals. Community members have donated fresh fruit and non-perishables, and when visited Friday, the kitchen looked very much like any other community organization kitchen.

“I just don’t understand it from a nonprofit leader who’s committed to feeding,” she said.

Food Bank disputes claims

Food bank officials dispute almost every detail provided by Ortolano.

For example, both Izelle and former president Erika Bills disputed that any personal property was taken when the Boys and Girls Club kitchen was cleaned out.

“Business as usual,” Bills said, when asked what was happening with the Food 4 Kids program.

The equipment taken from the kitchen belonged to the Food 4 Kids program, according to Izelle and Bills.

“We only had one location that had equipment in it,” Bills said. “There was no illegal entry, no equipment that was taken from anybody, because that equipment belongs to the program and the program is under the Mat-Su Food Bank.”

Pressed on the food-handling certificate, they conceded that was an error.

Mat-Su Food Bank officials had just received a large amount of food from Costco, according to Izelle. State officials had informed the Food Bank that the Boys and Girls Club would self-sponsor (take over) their location. Food bank officials asked the Boys and Girls Club state organization if they could secure the kitchen, according to Izelle.

“When I asked if we could secure that kitchen temporarily so we could get through the holidays, she said no,” he said. “So I didn’t have any other choice then to remove it because I didn’t have any way of protecting our assets. There was no theft or whatever going on. There was equipment that was bought for the Food 4 Kids program.”

Izelle and Bills also disputed that Ortolano’s portrayal of the Mat-Su Food Bank’s financing. They declined to share detailed information about the organization’s finances.

“Those aren’t things we’re going to keep at our desks,” Bills said. “They belong with our CPA, and our CPA provides them to the board of directors. And on request we can share that information, but it’s on request, and it’s not something that’s public knowledge, like printable for the newspaper.”

Any assertion that Food For Kids funding information was tracked separately was false, Izelle said.

“There is separation,” he said. “It is not to the degree that (Ortolano) wanted: separate banks and bank accounts. We’re a nonprofit. We can’t go across the street and say ‘I need a new account because I have a new program.’”

The Food 4 Kids program does provide support for other programs, Bills said.

“It helps to offset other costs, just like any other fundraiser or any event that we put on,” she said.

Izelle said he worked to keep Food 4 Kids donations separate from other revenues.

“If somebody writes me a check for $100 and they say “This goes to Food 4 Kids” then that’s where it goes, it goes in that bucket,” he said. “If it’s just a check for $100 and we’d like to help Food 4 Kids, then we try to apply it to that, but we might also use those funds to turn the lights on, or put gas in my van, because we have two vans that work under Food 4 Kids. All those are incidental costs.”

Food bank officials also disputed that any changes were in store for the program at any other of the sites, and that only the Boys and Girls Club site would see any changes, which directly contradicts Ortolano’s account. The complaints outlined by Ortolano were essentially sour grapes by an ex-employee, Izelle said.

No conflict would deter the mission of feeding the kids, Bills said.

“The bottom line is the mission, vision and values of this organization is to feed people that can’t feed themselves in emergencies,” she said. “Regardless of whether they’re being fed at the Boys and Girls Club, or at the Senior Center, or by us at My House or by Frontline, we’re all in it together to do the same thing, and that’s to feed that person who needs that meal.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.