2015
Aimee Bock and Kara Lomen form Partners in Quality Care, also known as Partners in Nutrition. The nonprofit organization distributed federal food aid to smaller nonprofits, religious institutions, and after-school programs to feed children.
2016
Aimee Bock and Kara Lomen form Feeding Our Future, which also acts as a sponsor organization to distribute federal food aid to smaller organizations to feed children.
2018
Aimee Bock and Kara Lomen argue and Lomen asks Bock to leave Partners in Quality Care. Bock takes control of Feeding Our Future and begins to develop it as a competitor to Partners in Quality Care.
March 2020
The World Health Organization declares the coronavirus a global pandemic. Schools across the United States are switching to virtual learning and closing school lunches.
The federal government has relaxed requirements for states to access federal child nutrition program money, which is intended to feed underprivileged children. The Minnesota Department of Education distributes the federal money to sponsor organizations, including Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care, who further distribute it to small providers who work with them to feed children.
Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care, which used federal funds before COVID, are starting to dramatically increase the number of providers working with them.
July 2020
Safari Restaurant, a popular Minneapolis eatery, reports feeding 5,000 children a day while working as a vendor for Feeding Our Future.
The Minnesota Department of Education told Feeding our Future it is concerned about the growing number of vendors, also known as food sites.
October 2020
Kara Lomen sends letter to Department of Education alleging ‘network of fraud’ centered on child and adult food program and summer food service program involving ‘daycare centers, SFSP [Summer Food Service Program] park sites, at least one restaurant and one sponsoring organization.
The Department of Education is raising concerns about the growth of Feeding Our Future with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers money for child nutrition programs.
November 2020
Feeding Our Future is suing the Department of Education for failing to timely process its applications for new and existing food sites to receive more federal food aid money. The organization says the department’s refusal discriminates and leaves children of color served by Feeding Our Future hungry.
December 2020
The Department of Education is turning down several new and renewal requests from food sites working with Feeding Our Future. At the end of the year, Feeding Our Future received $43 million in federal funding for child nutrition programs. Partners in Quality Care received $21 million.
March 2021
Feeding Our Future submits meal count to Minnesota Department of Education, reporting that one of its suppliers, Safari Restaurant, is serving breakfast and lunch to 6,000 children every day, seven days a week this month there, a total of 185,903 children. Safari receives $1 million in federal food aid funds.
The Minnesota Department of Education announces that it will suspend federal funding for 26 nonprofit organizations that work with Feeding Our Future. In a letter to Feeding Our Future, the education department accuses Feeding Our Future executive director Aimee Bock and board chair Benjamin Stayberg of ‘serious flaws’ and poor accounting .
April 2021
A state judge rules that the Department of Education acted too quickly in stopping funding for Feeding Our Future and orders the department to resume federal food aid payments to the organization.
The Education Department, still suspecting fraud, contacts the FBI.
May 2021
The FBI begins its investigation.
The Minnesota Department of Education is restoring funding to the 26 nonprofits working with Feeding Our Future. However, the department continues to reject applications from Feeding Our Future to add new food sites under its leadership.
Summer 2021
Aimee Bock’s boyfriend reportedly spent more than $40,000 of children’s nutrition programs money on a week-long trip to Las Vegas. There he reportedly paid $21,000 for a rental car, $9,000 at Caesar’s Palace, $6,700 at Gucci and $3,500 at Louis Vuitton.
October 2021
Aimee Bock allegedly spent $15,000 in federal money at the Walser car dealership.
December 2021
At the end of the year, Feeding Our Future received $198 million in federal funding for child nutrition. Partners in Quality Care received $191 million.
January 2022
Magistrate Judge Tony Leung signs three FBI search warrants authorizing searches of Feeding Our Future and related entities.
The FBI raids at least 15 properties, including the St. Anthony office of Feeding Our Future and the home of Aimee Bock. The U.S. Attorney’s Office unseals three search warrants in the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is suing to recover 14 properties allegedly purchased with federal food aid money.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is pledging to return or donate campaign donations given to him by men named in FBI search warrants.
Abdiaziz Farah, co-owner of Empire Cuisine & Market implicated in the fraud investigation, is taking unpaid leave from his position as executive director of the Burnsville Gateway STEM Academy charter school.
February 2022
Feeding Our Future begins the process of dissolving as an organization.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is donating campaign contributions she received from the men named in the food aisle search warrants.
State Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, returns donations he received from men involved in the scandal.
Abdi Salah and Sharmarke Issa are leaving their positions in Minneapolis city government after being embroiled in the scandal.
April 2022
Federal agents arrest Mohamed Jama Ismail, another co-owner of Empire Cuisine & Market involved in the food fraud investigation, on an airport jetway as he was departing for Kenya. Prosecutors charge Mohamed with passport fraud and allege he was trying to flee the country to avoid prosecution.
The state Senate Education Policy and Finance Committee begins hearing testimony from Minnesota Department of Education officials about the alleged food aid fraud. Several hearings take place in the following weeks.
May 2022
Federal prosecutors are filing passport fraud charges against Abdiaziz Farah.
August 2022
Mohamed Jama Ismail pleads guilty to passport fraud charges.
September 2022
Partners in Quality Care is suing the Minnesota Department of Education for discontinuing and denying its request for food assistance.
State Senate Finance and Education Policy Committee Releases Report Blaming Minnesota Department of Education for “Amplifying” Food Aid Fraud by Mismanaging Funds and Reducing visits to food sites supposed to verify their work, among others. the reasons.
September 2022
Federal prosecutors are filing the first financial fraud indictments against 47 suspects involved in the investigation.