Feeding Our Future: When Surveillance Footage Contradicts Fraud Allegations
The curious story of an MDE visit that found the opposite of what they were looking for
This Feeding Our Future scandal often feels like a version of the Spiderman pointing meme. The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) blames the sponsors (Feeding Our Future and Partners In Nutrition). The sponsors blame MDE. The sites blame MDE. And so forth.
It reminds me of an old parable - When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
Lost in all, the finger-pointing is a principle as American as Apple Pie—due process.
Here are all the things the Minnesota Department of Education didn’t do before going to the Federal Bureau of Investigation:
Conduct site visits
Restrict site capacities
Require sponsors to have more monitoring staff or do more monitoring visits
Validate claims
Conduct administrative reviews
Request backup documentation (e.g., bank records)
Investigate complaints
Review vendor contracts
Visit vendors
Desk audits
Issue a serious deficiency for false and fraudulent claims
Issue an overclaim to recover improperly paid payments
and so on …
But this didn’t stop them from crying foul without a scintilla of evidence of fraud other than a feeling and a belief that the counts weren’t possible. When Emily Honer took the stand in the first trial, I waited with bated breath to hear all the work MDE had done to determine that fraud was being committed before issuing a criminal referral. But they did nothing. Nothing. It is worth saying again - nothing. No visits. No audits. No validation. No warnings. No technical assistance. Nothing.
Aimee Bock reported suspect fraud at one of her sites involving Sharon Ross and Hanna Merkagen, who have since pleaded guilty to committing fraud. Emily Honer’s response to Ms. Bock was to handle it yourself, “MDE takes no position on fraud.”
Apparently, in Government, your reward for failing to do any meaningful work to safeguard tax dollars is a promotion. Emily Honer is now the Director of Food and Nutrition Services.
There have been various excuses thrown at the wall for their inaction. In one version of the story, the Judge in the case between MDE and FOF issued an order forcing MDE to pay. This is a lie, triggering a rare public statement from the judge. In another version of the story, doing their job would have jeopardized the FBI investigation. Without outright saying it, MDE intimated the FBI, and the US Attorney asked them to hold off on any actions that would alert the perpetrators. I don't think there has been any evidence to prove this statement. If it is true, I think it raises serious ethical questions.
It isn’t like MDE didn’t have guidance on what to do. There is a 155-page Child and Adult Care Food Program Handbook entitled “Serious Deficiency, Suspension, & Appeals for State Agencies & Sponsoring Organizations.”
But it isn’t true that MDE didn’t leave the office. It is just that when they did, they didn’t find what they were looking for. Let’s look at the case of Jenny Butcher and the United Youth of Minneapolis-Lake. This site is the subject of one of the Feeding Our Future indictments.
As told in the federal indictment, United Youth of Minneapolis was a sham site that did not serve people food. Jenny Butcher of the Minnesota Department of Education found quite a different scene on Saturday, October 16, 2021. According to a declaration by Ms. Butcher filed in the District Court, State of Minnesota, on November 15, 2021, she found, “the site caught our attention due to the high volume of people arriving to collect grocery bags full of food. The activity was so great that traffic was blocked.”
Ms. Butcher followed up with a call to Aimee Bock about her visit to the site, which was ostensibly to report meal pattern violations and inquire about the existence of educational activities. Here is the recorded audio of the call, which was anonymously provided to me.
Interestingly, Ms. Butcher, in this recorded phone call, seems to compare the activity at the site to Second Harvest or Catholic Charities despite derisively referring to the work as serving groceries. It appears that it is not enough to serve food but you have to serve the “right” kind of food and have the “correct” programming to satisfy the Minnesota Department of Education. That is unless you are Second Harvest or Catholic Charities. This gives new meaning to the saying no good deed goes unpunished.
Thankfully, we don’t have to trust the word of federal agents or Ms. Butcher; there are surveillance videos, pictures, and other documentation from the United Youth of Minneapolis site.
Here is a picture of Ms. Butcher with the bag of food.
A view from the side of the building during Ms. Butcher’s visit.
This is the following weekend at the United Youth location.
This doesn’t look like a sham food distribution site to me.