Minnesota ‘child nutrition’ site claimed 1.6 MILLION meals — wait until you see what taxpayers actually bought

BS BULLETIN:

Two more Feeding Our Future defendants have been sentenced to federal prison.
Their tiny deli-based operation claimed to serve as many as 3,000 children every day — and more than 1.6 million meals in a year.
Prosecutors say $7.3 million in fraudulent claims helped fund vehicles, property and kickbacks.

Apparently there were a LOT of hungry children hanging around one little Minnesota strip mall.

At least that’s what the paperwork said.

Two more defendants in Minnesota’s staggering Feeding Our Future scandal are headed to federal prison after helping operate a supposed child nutrition site that prosecutors say collected millions of dollars for meals that were never served.

Ahmed Ghedi received more than five years behind bars, while Abdihakim Ahmed was sentenced to four-and-a-half years. The men were also ordered to pay millions in restitution.

More fraudsters being held accountable. These criminals lined their pockets with money that was meant for children all while Walz, Flanagan, and Ellison turned a blind eye to their crimes. https://t.co/xnJj1sYXiw

— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) August 27, 2026

But the numbers behind their operation are where this story becomes almost comical — until you remember whose money disappeared.

Ahmed operated Gurey Deli, a small market in a Maplewood strip mall. Under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, the defendants established ASA Limited as a federal child nutrition site. Within three weeks, according to court records cited by local Fox affiliate FOX 9, they were claiming to serve between 2,000 and 3,000 children every single day, seven days a week.

From September 2020 to September 2021, the operation claimed more than 1.6 million meals. And how did they keep track of this army of apparently ravenous children?

Here’s the detail that deserves its own place in the Minnesota Fraud Hall of Fame. Investigators examining attendance records found spreadsheets containing a formula that randomly inserted ages between 7 and 17 for each supposed child on the list.

Very efficient.

Unfortunately, feeding actual children appears to have been considerably less important. Prosecutors say the operation submitted roughly $7.3 million in fraudulent claims through Feeding Our Future. Ahmed kept hundreds of thousands of dollars, bought a former bar and restaurant property and purchased a 2022 Mini Cooper.

Ghedi’s spending was even more impressive.

Prosecutors said he used fraud proceeds for vehicles, credit-card spending and real estate. More than $560,000 was transferred to a company he co-owned toward the purchase of a mansion and adjoining property in Minneapolis. Authorities are forfeiting that property along with a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

There were kickbacks, too. Court documents say at least $49,000 was paid to a Feeding Our Future employee in exchange for helping facilitate the fraudulent site’s participation in the federal program. And this little operation was merely one tentacle of an astonishing scandal.

Federal prosecutors say Feeding Our Future fraudulently obtained and disbursed more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. The organization grew from distributing roughly $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021 while opening more than 250 program sites across Minnesota.

Founder Aimee Bock was sentenced in May to 500 months — more than 41 years — in federal prison for her role in the scheme.

The judge described the organization rather memorably at Bock’s sentencing: “This was a fraud vortex and you were at the epicenter of it.”

The vortex isn’t finished producing prison sentences.

Just last week, another Feeding Our Future defendant, Abdinasir Mahamed Abshir, received 78 months after admitting his role in the fraud — with his punishment enhanced because he tried to interfere with a cooperating witness during another defendant’s trial.

MY QUICK TAKE:

Three thousand kids a day. Seven days a week. At a little deli.

And apparently somebody looked at those numbers and kept the taxpayer checks flowing. That’s the part of these government fraud scandals that never stops amazing me. Yes, prosecute the crooks. Take the mansions. Take the cars. Send them to prison.

But somewhere between “small deli” and “1.6 million children’s meals,” shouldn’t somebody responsible for guarding our money have asked one tiny question? Really?