Christine Horner, copy editor

The lawsuit regarding the fraud scheme of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit meant to cover the cost of food provided to children at public schools and child care centers, has witnessed additional guilty verdicts in recent weeks. According to KSTP, out of the 70 individuals initially found to be in connection with the fraudulent activities, 21 have agreed to plea deals. Three more defendants — Haji Osman Salad, Khadra Abdi and Sharmarke Issa — have now pleaded guilty to wire fraud. 

Prior to the lawsuit and its related controversy, these three defendants were known publicly for their businesses and nonprofit work. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Salad founded Haji’s Kitchen LLC in 2020 which, with $11.4 million in federal aid, was intended to provide free meals to school children. However, prosecutors discovered that Salad “created false invoices claiming he supplied a site in Pelican Rapids — a town of 2,500 people — with almost $300,000 worth of food for 140,000 meals and snacks,” according to KSTP. 

Abdi served as principal to a Minnesota tutoring service, Shafi’i Tutoring & Homework Help Center, which she promised would provide free meals to its participating children with help from Feeding Our Future. According to KSTP, hardly any of the $3.6 million in federal funds the center received was used for meal reimbursements. In addition to serving as Board Chair of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority for three years, Issa also used shell companies to continue laundering Feeding Our Future funding. 

This scheme has cost Minnesota taxpayers millions of dollars and garnered negative attention surrounding Minnesota’s Department of Education (MDE). The Office of the Legislative Auditor of Minnesota issued a special review addressing MDE’s hesitancy to uphold its responsibilities for “conducting regular oversight of sponsors participating in CACFP and SFSP.” According to this review, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) had been “sponsored” by Feeding Our Future and “[t]he Minnesota Department of Education […] is responsible for administering these programs in Minnesota.” The review also claimed that over 30 complaints were made to MDE regarding Feeding Our Future and its sites where the nonprofit was meant to provide food to students.

Two testimonies from Shakopee community members provided insight into the discrepancies between the number of meals that defendants claimed were provided to children at Feeding Our Future’s sites and the number of meals that were actually served. According to Minnesota Reformer, Shakopee Public Schools Finance Director Bill Menozzi said that in total, around 300 to 600 students received meals during the pandemic and another 30 to 60 students received meals from local sites. He also claimed that “school employees handed out 20 to 40 meals on average at Clifton Townhomes, and he never saw any other people distributing meals there” even though “the defendants claimed to be feeding about 400 people daily […] during the pandemic.” Shakopee’s historical park The Landing was also a Feeding Our Future site that allegedly saw similar inconsistencies. The defendants claimed to have served over 100,000 meals at that site, but William Walker, former cultural resource manager at The Landing, testified that he never saw any meals served there.

According to the Sahan Journal, in agreement with federal prosecutors, Issa is expected to serve two and a half to three and a half years in prison. He also agreed to pay approximately $3.6 million in restitution. The Minnesota Star Tribune states that Salad’s sentence could last anywhere from five years and three months to six and a half years. Abdi’s sentence could last between 24 and 33 months, although according to the plea agreement, she plans to advocate for a 24 month sentence during the sentencing.