Auditors tell Minnesota House panel MDE oversight of Feeding Our Future was inadequate; agency outlines reforms

The Office of the Legislative Auditor told the Minnesota House Education Policy Committee on Feb. 11 that the Minnesota Department of Education provided inadequate oversight of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, a sponsor in two federal child nutrition programs later linked by federal prosecutors to an alleged $250 million fraud scheme.

The audit, released in June 2024 and presented to the committee by Legislative Auditor Judy Randall and OLA Special Reviews Director Catherine Tyson, found repeated missed opportunities by MDE between 2018 and 2022 to detect and act on warning signs, failed complaint investigations, and approvals of annual sponsor applications despite serious concerns about Feeding Our Future’s financial controls and program management.

The OLA report focused on MDE’s responsibilities under the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), federal programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture. Tyson told the committee the department repeatedly approved Feeding Our Future’s applications and meal claims even after finding problems such as inflated attendance records, menus that did not match served meals, and the loss of the organization’s nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service.

"When bad actors collude with the intent to commit fraud, the fraud can be very difficult to discover and it can be very difficult to stop," Tyson said. She summarized three central findings: MDE did not act on pre-pandemic warning signs; it did not effectively use its authority to hold the sponsor accountable; and it was…