Friends and neighbors,
Throughout the pandemic, Minnesota nonprofit “Feeding Our Future” claimed to carry out its mission of providing nutritious meals to children. The reality, however, is that this organization was carrying out a massive scheme that defrauded our state of more than $250 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
On Friday, June 7, a federal jury delivered mostly guilty verdicts in the initial convictions of the Feeding Our Future FBI-led fraud case. Five defendants received guilty convictions on most of the charges brought against them by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Two defendants received acquittals. 70 people have been similarly charged in what is likely the largest COVID-related fraud in the nation.
This week, the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) released a devastating report on the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) oversight of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The report found MDE’s oversight of Feeding Our Future to be inadequate, stating that, “MDE’s actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud.”
The OLA report had three themes:
- MDE failed to act on warning signs known to the department before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and before the start of the alleged fraud
- MDE did not effectively exercise its authority to hold Feeding Our Future accountable to program requirements
- MDE was ill-prepared to respond to the issues it encountered with Feeding Our Future
My Senate Republican colleagues and I have been sounding the alarm on Feeding Our Future for years. Back in 2022, a Republican-led Education Committee issued a report after several hearings with MDE staff and Commissioners that had essentially the same three findings as the OLA:
- MDE did not follow related state and federal law
- MDE practiced questionable business practices that would seldom survive in a work environment that provided real accountability
- MDE lacked administrative direction and appeared disconnected from reality and the expectations placed on it.
This is not the only case of fraud that took place under the Walz administration. Earlier this week, a separate audit report showed the OLA could not verify about 41% of Frontline Worker Pay bonuses made in 2023, resulting in about $205 million in unverified payments. Previous OLA reports have also found $3.5 million in overpayments through the RentHelp program, and millions of fraudulent dollars through DHS programs for child care assistance, adult day care centers, opioid treatment, and more.
The fact that a massive fraud scheme like Feeding Our Future occurred in our state is appalling, and it is even more alarming that this fraud prospered under the watch of the Minnesota Department of Education. We entrust our state officials and agencies with the responsibility of safeguarding taxpayer dollars. However, Feeding Our Future, along with other recent instances of fraud, demonstrates how the Walz administration failed Minnesota and allowed fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars to flourish.
We need to implement more robust measures to safeguard taxpayer dollars and prevent similar fraud in the future.
Sincerely,
Bruce Anderson
Contact Me
I want to hear from you, my constituents, on issues that are important to you. Please feel free to reach out to my office with any concerns or ideas you may have. You can contact my office at sen.bruce.anderson@mnsenate.gov or 651-296-5981.