Feeding Our Future
Feeding Our Future was a Minnesota nonprofit founded in 2016. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it claimed to distribute many thousands of meals to schoolchildren, but instead stole hundreds of millions of dollars while providing few or no meals at most of its locations. Merrick Garland, attorney general during the Biden administration, called it the country’s largest pandemic relief fraud scheme.
Although the state agency responsible for monitoring the school meal program repeatedly tried to cut off funds, the organization was not shut down until FBI raids and federal indictments in 2022. As of late 2025, out of 78 suspects indicted in the fraud, more than 50 had pled guilty. Another seven individuals were found guilty at trial, including the leader of the scheme, Aimee Bock, while many others awaited trial. As most perpetrators, excluding Bock, were Somali Americans, the scandal resulted in increased political attention on the community, including from the administration of Donald Trump.
History
The organization was founded by Aimee Bock in 2016, and repeatedly applied for grants from the state of Minnesota, but was rejected due to allegations of mismanagement and abuses. In July 2019, months before the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota Department of Education officials identified early signs of fraud, including meal claims they considered implausible. According to former state employees, Bock pressured workers who raised questions within weeks of the organization's first submissions, and officials began documenting her "concerning behavior". Before the pandemic, Feeding Our Future billed the state for approximately $3.4 million.The organization's tax status as a nonprofit was revoked by the IRS in February 2020. After the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and a large increase in the amount of federal aid available, Feeding Our Future applied to receive funding to provide meals to school children, as schools were closed. MDE began giving the organization substantial grants after Feeding Our Future threatened legal action against the state. Ultimately, after MDE began delaying responses to Feeding Our Future's grant applications, the organization sued the state in November 2020, arguing that it was being discriminated against "because of race, national origin, color, and religion."
Around the same time, the MDE raised concerns of fraud with the United States Department of Agriculture, and the FBI began investigating in February 2021. Bock maintained ties with local politicians, including Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and state senator Omar Fateh. An aide of Frey's, Abdi Salah, ultimately pled guilty to wire fraud; Frey stated he was unaware of Salah's activities. Another supporter was Minneapolis council member Jamal Osman, whose wife operated a Feeding Our Future meal site which received more than $400,000 in funding.
Federal prosecutors allege that only around 3% of the funding granted to Feeding Our Future meal sites was spent on food, while the remainder was funneled to the individual conspirators involved in the fraud. At its peak, the organization listed 299 "meal sites", which purported to have served 90 million meals in less than 2 years. One site surveilled by the FBI claiming to serve 6,000 meals per day actually averaged around 40 visitors.
Meanwhile, in December 2020, MDE denied Feeding Our Future's ongoing grant applications and labeled the organization "severely deficient", leading to an attempt by MDE to terminate the partnership fully. Feeding our Future sued the state in response. Minnesota judge John Guthmann found in the spring of 2021 that there was no legal basis for stopping payments, and informed MDE that there could be a "real problem" if it did not resume processing Feeding Our Future's grant applications, although he did not formally order MDE to resume giving grants.
Several months later, Guthmann held MDE in contempt of court for processing grant applications slowly and ordered the state agency to pay a fine of $47,500 to Feeding Our Future. After the fraud was uncovered, a report by Minnesota's Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the lawsuit had a chilling effect on MDE's oversight functions.
Federal charges and legal proceedings
In January 2022, the FBI raided a number of Feeding Our Future "meal" locations, and the nonprofit was disestablished shortly thereafter. That fall, members of the organization were accused of defrauding the state's USDA-funded school nutrition programs of at least $250 million over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, led by the organization's president, Bock.In September 2022, the U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced federal charges against 47 former Feeding Our Future employees and contractors for their involvement in the nation's largest pandemic-related fraud scheme. By October 2024, the number of indicted individuals had reached 70. Two additional suspects were indicted in May and June 2025; one was arrested just before boarding a flight out of the United States at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport.
In the spring of 2024, a group of seven defendants were the first to go to trial. Near the end of the trial, an attempt was made to bribe a juror to vote to acquit with $120,000 in cash. The juror reported the incident and was dismissed to avoid the appearance of impropriety, along with another who heard about the incident from a relative. The jury was sequestered for the remainder of the trial. Of the first seven defendants, five were convicted on most charges against them, while two were acquitted.
Several weeks later, five suspects, including three of the defendants from the first trial, were indicted on charges related to the bribery. One of the individuals indicted for bribery had been acquitted of fraud during the trial. All five suspects in the bribery case had pleaded guilty to the resulting charges by May 2025.
The second trial in the case began in February 2025 for Bock, the ringleader of the scheme, and a leading co-conspirator, Salim Said. On March 19, 2025, Bock and Said were both found guilty on all counts. A federal court handed down the first sentence in the scandal on October15, 2024. Mohamed Ismail received a 12-year sentence and was ordered to pay more than $47million in restitution.
By November 2025, out of 78 suspects indicted in the fraud, dozens had pleaded guilty. Seven had been found guilty at trial, while many others awaited trial. Although more than $250million is alleged to have been stolen, only around $75million had been recovered as of early 2025, as much of the money was spent on unrecoverable expenses like luxury meals and hotels, or was transferred to overseas investments which the United States cannot seize. In an early January 2026 report, the federal government estimated that total fraud from the case could top $350 million.
Following the killing of Renée Good by a federal agent in January 2026, amidst Operation Metro Surge, the prosecution of Feeding our Future faced setbacks due to the resignation of six federal prosecutors, including lead attorney Joe Thompson. Law professor Mark Osler described the resignations as a "very big blow" to the case.
Responses
Amidst ongoing investigation into the Feeding Our Future case, potential fraud was identified and investigated in a number of other state-run social services schemes, including emergency housing, autism therapy for children, home health assistance, and Medicaid. Minnesota drew media attention in 2025 for the set of fraud scandals, with U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson writing that the state had become "a national poster child for public corruption". State lawmakers, who had been working on the issue legislatively for several years, responded to the national spotlight in varied ways. Rep. Kristin Robbins said that "most of the fraud is in the Somali community, and some of my best whistleblowers are in the Somali community".Defendants
Most, though not all, of those charged and convicted in the case were members of Minnesota's Somali American community, whether first-generation immigrants or native-born. Bock, the leader of Feeding our Future, accused state agencies of discrimination against the Somali community in the months before charges were filed.A Somali American investigator for the Attorney General of Minnesota's office, Kayseh Magan, suggested that these accusations of racism made against state agencies led to hesitancy in taking action against Feeding Our Future. Magan argued that the Somali American community's close social cohesion led to a disconnect between fraudulent activity and public attention; he also suggested that some fraudsters have used accusations of racism against investigators to avoid accountability.
The case led to internal debate and discussion in the Minnesota Somali American community and broader political arena. In 2025, the Feeding Our Future case was cited by President Donald Trump as a reason to cut off temporary protected status for some Somali refugees in Minnesota. Hamse Warfa, a Somali American former state and federal official, wrote in the Star Tribune that the case should not be used to scapegoat the entire community, which is mostly made up of law-abiding residents.
The following table lists only those who pled guilty or were convicted by a jury; it does not include those who thus far have only been charged with crimes. It is up to date as of December 28, 2025.
| Defendant | Age at conviction | Convicted of | Pled guilty or convicted at trial | Alleged amount stolen | Sentence | Source |
| Bekam Merdassa | 40 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $3,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Hadith Yusuf Ahmed | 33 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $2,100,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Hanna Marekgn | 40 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $7,100,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdul Abubakar Ali | 40 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $3,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Anab Awad | 53 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $9,300,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Liban Yasin Alishire | 42 | Wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $714,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Mulata Ali | 38 | Aiding and abetting in the theft of public money | Pled guilty | $95,099 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Muhamed Ali Hussein | 53 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $5,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Lul Bashir Ali | 57 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $5,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdulkadir Awale | 50 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $2,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Qamar Hassan | 54 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $800,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdikadir Kadiye | 51 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $1,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Yusuf Ali | 41 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, theft | Pled guilty | $280,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Sahra Nur | 63 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $5,000,000 | 4.25 years, monetary restitution | |
| Filsan Hassan | 29 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $361,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Ahmed Sharif Omar-Hashim | 39 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $3,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Sharon Ross | 53 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $2,400,000 | 3.5 years, monetary restitution | |
| Hoda Ali Abdi | 53 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $1,300,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdiaziz Farah | 35 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, passport fraud | Convicted at trial | $8,000,000 | 28 years, $47,920,514 monetary restitution | |
| Mohamed Jama Ismail | 51 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering | Convicted at trial | $2,200,000 | 12 years, monetary restitution | |
| Abdimajid Nur | 21 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, wire fraud | Convicted at trial | $47,000,000 | 10 years, $47 million monetary restitution | |
| Hayat Nur | 27 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud | Convicted at trial | $30,000 | 3 years, $47 million monetary restitution | |
| Mukhtar Sharif | 33 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, wire fraud | Convicted at trial | $1,300,000 | 17.5 years, monetary restitution | |
| Sharmarke Issa | 43 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $3,600,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Haji Salad | 34 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $11,400,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Khadra Abdi | 42 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $3,500,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Kawsar Jama | 42 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $1,300,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Farhiya Mohamud | 65 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $0 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Ayan Farah Abukar | 43 | Money laundering | Pled guilty | $5,700,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdulkadir Salah | 38 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $5,500,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdi Salah | 37 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $1,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Sharmake Jama | 37 | Wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $5,300,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Muhamed Muse Noor a.k.a. Deeq Darajo | 40 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $52,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Ayan Jama | 37 | Wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $5,300,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Mekfira Hussein | 40 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $9,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abduljabar Hussein | 44 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | Pled guilty | $9,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Zamzam Jama | 50 | Money laundering | Pled guilty | $2,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Mustafa Jama | 40 | Money laundering | Pled guilty | $2,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Asha Jama | 42 | Money laundering | Pled guilty | $2,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Najmo Ahmed | 35 | Money laundering | Pled guilty | $1,400,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdikadir Ainashe Mohamud | 33 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $5,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir | 33 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $5,400,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Aimee Bock | 44 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery | Convicted at trial | $1,900,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Salim Said | 36 | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, unlawful monetary transactions | Convicted at trial | $5,500,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdihakim Ahmed | - | Wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $7,300,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Ahmed Artan | 40 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $666,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Ahmed Ghedi | - | Wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | $2,000,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Asad Mohamed Abshir | - | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $1,600,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Mahad Ibrahim | 46 | Wire fraud, money laundering | Pled guilty | - | Not yet sentenced | |
| Hamdi Hussein Omar | 29 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $1,400,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Hibo Salah Daar | 51 | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $2,400,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Guhaad Hashi Said | - | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering | Pled guilty | $2,100,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Hussein Mohamed Farah | - | Wire fraud | Pled guilty | $2,700,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdullahe Nur Jesow | 65 | Money laundering | Pled guilty | $17,600,000 | Not yet sentenced | |
| Abdiwahab Mohamud | - | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering | Pled guilty | $17,000,000 | Not yet sentenced |