U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced charges against 10 additional Minnesotans in the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal Monday, bringing the total number of defendants to 60.
One of the new defendants, Sharon Ross, was the executive director of a nonprofit called House of Refuge Twin Cities. According to an October Fox 9 report, DFL Sen. Sandy Pappas from St. Paul personally intervened to help Ross’ nonprofit receive funding through Feeding Our Future in the spring of 2021.
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Attorney General Keith Ellison scrambled to defend his oversight of Feeding Our Future after two of his former staff members spoke out in a Star Tribune article published Thursday night.
The article highlights the state’s shortcomings in preventing the fraud and culminates with the analysis of two former senior members of Ellison’s team, both of whom asked to remain anonymous “for fear of retribution.”
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Republican lawmakers hammered the Walz administration Monday for missing at least five clear opportunities to prevent the Feeding Our Future scandal and violating state law along the way.
In a stunning development, Sen. Mark Koran and Rep. Steve Drazkowski released a letter showing the Walz administration never alerted the Office of the Legislative Auditor to the suspected fraud.
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The DFL coverup of the great Feeding Our Future (FOF) caper has now begun. We need to begin with the mess Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) created. Make no mistake, their malfeasance cost taxpayers $250 million.
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A new report issued Monday by Republicans on the Senate Education Committee claims the Minnesota Department of Education failed to follow state and federal law in its management of federal meals programs.
The report says agency leadership “either did not know how to responsibly manage [Food and Nutrition Service] programs or found the faithful execution of those duties burdensome and optional.”
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Federal authorities nabbed a man allegedly trying to flee the country after helping steal millions of dollars meant for child hunger programs.
Court documents say Mohamed Jama Ismail, 49, tried to flee the country after authorities revoked his passport in January after authorities raided more than 24 properties and seized more than $6 million from a business he co-founded named Empire Cuisine.
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A Minnesota nonprofit that was raided by the FBI last month announced Friday that it is dissolving, blaming “negative media reports.”
The FBI raided over a dozen properties connected to Feeding our Future Jan. 20. An FBI search warrant accused the “conspirators” of stealing “millions of dollars in federal funds” from child nutrition programs, but the nonprofit has denied any wrongdoing and nobody has been charged with a crime to date.
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The Jan. 20 FBI raids on Feeding Our Future was just the latest escalation in a war between the state agency and two networks of nonprofits operating food giveaways to low-income children. The state Department of Education (MDE) has been battling Feeding Our Future and the related nonprofit Partners in Nutrition (aka Partners in Quality Care) in and out of court going back at least as far as 2017.
MDE oversees locally two federal government free-food programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Those two programs are meant to supplement the better-known school lunch program and provide meals to children at times they are not in class — after school and during summers, respectively.
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