A Minnesota Department of Education official testified Tuesday that the agency verified addresses of food sites before approving them to receive federal funding, but left further vetting to a nonprofit that allegedly led the theft of $250 million.
The information came on the second day of testimony in the federal trial of Aimee Bock, the former executive director of Feeding Our Future. Emily Honer, who oversees federal child nutrition programs for the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), testified for several hours Monday, and returned to the witness stand Tuesday under cross-examination from Bock’s attorney, Kenneth Udoibok.
Udoibok pressed Honer on how MDE verifies food sites before approving them to participate in the federal child nutrition programs. Honer testified that much of the responsibility falls to sponsors like Feeding Our Future.
Through a lengthy exchange, Honer told Udoibok that MDE processes new food site applications by checking to ensure that the address is a location where a food site can operate, and then adding them to an internal system.
“So, you just approve them?” Udoibok said.
“I would disagree,” Honer said.
“You deny them if you can’t find the location?” Udoibok said.
RELATED STORIES
“I would say yes,” Honer said.
Under questioning later by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, Honer testified that federal regulations for the child nutrition programs were designed to put the bulk of the regulatory authority for food sites on sponsors like Feeding Our Future instead of state agencies.
MDE doesn’t have the capacity to review the “tens of thousands” of meal claims submitted to the department every year in exchange for federal reimbursement, she said. If it was responsible for that vetting, many children would not receive meals they depend on, Honer added.
Prosecutors told jurors in opening statements Monday that as the head of Feeding Our Future, Bock was the “gatekeeper” of the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation. She is on trial with Salim Said, former co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis.
Prosecutors allege that Bock and 69 other defendants stole $250 million in federal food-aid money meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Salim Said allegedly stole millions of dollars through his restaurant and two shell companies.
The Minnesota Department of Education distributed the federal money to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that has since closed. The organization then distributed the money to food venders and food sites that were supposed to feed children ready-to-eat meals.
Prosecutors allege that some organizations reported serving more meals than they did in order to receive more money. Some never served any meals at all.
Udoibok also questioned Honer about MDE’s responsibility to investigate suspected fraud at food sites.
“If you have information that a particular site is engaged in fraud, do you have any obligation to go out and visit a site?” Udoibok asked.
Honer responded that MDE would be obligated to notify the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General.
“Have you ever taken the position that MDE cannot take a position on fraud?” Udoibok asked.
“MDE does not have legal authority to investigate or designate fraud,” Honer said.
Honer also told Udoibok that MDE inspected Safari Restaurant in June 2020, shortly before it became enrolled in the federal child nutrition programs. Udoibok also pressed Honer on why she continued to approve meals at Safari’s food site when she had concerns about fraud there.
“I worked within my authority,” Honer said.
Udoibok emphasized that she had the power to deny the meal submissions, and asked why she didn’t.
“I didn’t feel I had the evidence for my concerns,” Honer said.
During one heated moment, Honer testified that Feeding Our Future should have had “a hunch” about fraud at the Safari Restaurant location because MDE had communicated concerns about it.
“What hunch would it be?” Udoibok said. “Is it because it’s a Somalian restaurant?”
Udoibok’s question opened the door for Thompson to later ask Honer if she’s ever personally experienced racism. With emotion in her voice, Honer described herself as Indigenous and a “proud member” of the Red Cliff Reservation, noting that she and her family have experienced a lot of racism in their lives.
“I have no time for it in my life,” Honer said.
Thompson asked Honer how it felt when Bock sued MDE in 2020 for scrutinizing meal counts, and accused the state agency of racism because of Feeding Our Future’s East African clientele.
“It felt awful,” Honer said.
Udoibok later asked Honer whether Bock ever personally accused Honer of racism.
“Not that I can recall,” she said.
Monday testimony
Prosecutors spent hours Monday afternoon reviewing meal submission claims with Honer, who testified that she was concerned by the “astronomical” growth in applications for new sites seeking to provide meals in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal government issued several waivers to the federal child nutrition programs during the pandemic, aimed at ensuring kids who were no longer going to school could still receive meals, Honer said. Among those new sites were restaurants like Safari.
“The number of new sites and the amount of enrollment being submitted on the applications was quite alarming,” Honer testified.
Feeding Our Future sponsored Safari as a food site in April 2020, according to an application form signed by Bock and Salim Said submitted to MDE. Immediately, the restaurant claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day. The small south Minneapolis restaurant submitted a reimbursement claim in April that said it provided 15,322 lunches and snacks each day for nine days.
The claims grew each month, submission claims reviewed by prosecutors showed. In July 2020, Safari said they served a total of 154,810 meals for breakfast and lunch. Honer said she was concerned by the number, which was higher than the amount of meals served by large public school districts in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and sought guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“That number is incredibly large when we were comparing to other sites operating this program, and we didn’t understand how this could be happening,” Honer said.
By October 2020, Safari Restaurant reported serving 185,849 breakfasts and lunches, enough to feed roughly 6,000 kids seven days a week.
Honer testified that in the meantime, she continued to seek guidance from the USDA and received notice that for-profit restaurants like Safari could not participate in the program. When MDE told Feeding Our Future the news, Bock responded with an email saying that Feeding Our Future would take over those sites — a move that would put control in a nonprofit’s hands and allow the sites to continue operating. It felt like a technicality, Honer said, but large claims kept coming.
“There was no slow down; the claims continued to be alarming,” Honer said.
Udoibok pressed Honer Tuesday about whether federal regulations prevented a nonprofit like Feeding Our Future from taking over food sites managed by for-profit restaurants like Safari.
“There’s no regulation stopping a nonprofit from taking over the functioning of a for-profit,” Udoibok stated to Honer.
“I agree,” Honer responded.
“Does the regulation prevent it?” Udoibok asked.
“Not to my knowledge,” Honer said.
“Thank you,” Udoibok said.
Honer also testified Monday that she and her staff noticed that many of the new sites sponsored by Feeding Our Future for approval in 2020 were businesses that filed forms with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office just days before submitting an application to MDE to enroll in the federal child nutrition programs. Those sites would immediately submit documents to MDE reporting to serve large numbers of meals in order to receive federal reimbursement, Honer testified.
“I remember the claims of many of those sites being equivalent, again, to large school districts…it didn’t seem reasonable,” Honer said.
Honer said took her concerns about Feeding Our Future to the FBI in early 2021.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of meals Safari Restaurant claimed to serve in July 2020.
