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A 24-year-old Minnesota man has been sent to federal prison for diverting millions from pandemic meal programs meant to feed low-income children.
Federal prosecutors say 24-year-old Abdimajid Mohamed Nur of Shakopee, Minnesota, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which exploited emergency child nutrition funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel in St. Paul also ordered three years of supervised release and restitution of $47,920,514 after jurors found that Nur helped generate false claims for millions of meals at more than 30 supposed distribution sites.
The case is one part of a wider federal investigation into the now-defunct Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which prosecutors allege oversaw a $250–$300 million scheme involving USDA-funded meal programs for children.
The sentencing matters for families, schools and taxpayers because it involves programs that provide daily meals for low-income children and relied on relaxed documentation rules during the pandemic.
It also sits within a broader federal effort to recover misused COVID-19 aid and strengthen oversight of child nutrition funding administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and state education agencies.
According to court records and trial evidence, Nur worked with others to claim reimbursements for more than 18 million meals that were never served, drawing over $47 million from federal child nutrition funds.
The operation ran through Empire Cuisine & Market, a small halal market in Shakopee that became a sponsor site soon after it enrolled in federal child nutrition programs in April 2020, within weeks of being registered as a business with Minnesota authorities.
Investigators found that many of the listed “meal sites” were parking lots, empty commercial spaces or locations where local school districts, including Shakopee Public Schools, were already serving legitimate meals to children.
Evidence showed that Nur prepared most of the falsified meal counts, invoices and rosters, including lists of non-existent children, to justify the reimbursement claims.
The conspiracy is tied to Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit founded in 2016 that served as a sponsor for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) until early 2022, when FBI raids and federal charges effectively shut it down.
As of late 2025, at least 78 defendants have been charged in the broader case, with more than 50 guilty pleas and multiple trial convictions.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota has framed Nur’s sentencing as another milestone in what it calls the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme involving meal programs in the country.
Officials have highlighted that, beyond the individual case, the prosecution is intended to send a signal that misuse of pandemic relief funds will be aggressively pursued, particularly where children’s food security is at stake.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously described the overall Feeding Our Future prosecution as the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date, underscoring how the case has become a national reference point for pandemic-aid oversight failures.
At the state level, Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor has already issued a critical report concluding that the Minnesota Department of Education’s weak oversight of the child nutrition program helped create conditions in which the fraud could flourish.
Members of Minnesota’s Somali community, from which many defendants but not all originate, have expressed concern that the scandal and surrounding political rhetoric may unfairly stigmatize the wider community.
Recent reporting has noted that leaders and residents have publicly condemned the fraud while rejecting attempts to blame an entire immigrant group for the crimes of specific individuals.
For families, the case does not change eligibility rules for child nutrition programs, but it may affect how quickly new meal sites are approved and how closely existing sites are monitored.
Federal child nutrition programs such as CACFP and SFSP provide millions of meals daily nationwide to children in schools, child care, after-school programs and summer sites, and are a central part of the nutrition safety net for low-income households.
For community organizations and schools that operate legitimate meal sites, the Nur case and related prosecutions are likely to mean more documentation requirements, unannounced monitoring visits, and closer review of claimed meal numbers and vendor relationships.
GAO and USDA reviews before and during the pandemic have repeatedly urged tighter controls in child nutrition programs to reduce improper payments without blocking access for eligible children.
Taxpayers are affected through the sheer scale of alleged losses. Prosecutors say the Feeding Our Future scheme alone diverted at least $250 million in federal aid, a figure that sits within a broader national pattern of pandemic fraud across multiple programs.
The Feeding Our Future prosecution fits into larger federal findings about pandemic fraud across relief programs.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that unemployment insurance programs alone likely lost between $100 billion and $135 billion to fraud from April 2020 to May 2023, representing roughly 11–15% of total benefits paid.
In the nutrition space, a 2024 special review by Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the state education agency’s inadequate oversight of federal child nutrition programs, including delayed follow-up on fraud complaints and weak verification, enabled roughly $250 million in alleged theft tied to Feeding Our Future.
Earlier GAO testimony to Congress had already flagged improper payment risks in school meals and related programs, and recommended that USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service strengthen state monitoring and verification processes.
Members of the public who suspect fraud in USDA-funded nutrition programs—including school meals, CACFP or SFSP—are encouraged to report concerns through official channels.
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service advises that people can contact their state or territorial agency directly using contact information listed on the FNS “Report Fraud” page, which provides state-by-state details.
In addition, the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) operates a national fraud hotline, which can be reached online at the OIG hotline website or by calling 1-800-424-9121.
Reports can cover suspected theft of program funds, falsified documentation, or other criminal activity affecting nutrition programs.
Where discrimination or civil rights concerns are involved, USDA’s civil rights office also accepts formal complaints using established federal procedures.
Procedurally, the next major step for Nur will be sentencing in the separate juror-bribery case before Judge Doty, where he has already entered a guilty plea.
That sentence will be imposed independently of the 10-year term issued by Judge Brasel, meaning his total time in federal custody will not be known until both cases are complete.
Beyond Nur’s individual matters, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota continues to schedule hearings, plea changes and trials for other defendants in the Feeding Our Future investigation, including more recent indictments announced in November 2025.
Federal financial litigators will also pursue long-term collection of the restitution ordered against Nur, using tools such as wage garnishment and lien filings once he leaves prison.
Nur’s case illustrates how emergency pandemic flexibilities in federal nutrition programs, introduced to keep children fed during school closures, also created opportunities for large-scale fraud when oversight did not keep pace.
Families who rely on school and community meal programs, and the organizations that serve them, are affected when high-profile fraud cases erode trust or prompt abrupt rule changes.
The sentencing reinforces that federal prosecutors, inspectors general and state auditors are still unwinding complex COVID-19-era fraud schemes years after the first indictments.
It also shows that courts are willing to impose lengthy prison terms and large restitution orders when defendants divert funds from programs designed to feed children.
For audiences, the key questions ahead include how quickly federal and state agencies can implement stronger, targeted oversight without making it harder for legitimate providers to serve meals in high-need communities.
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