Convicted Feeding Our Future head says Ilhan Omar knew about Minnesota meal fraud scheme

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar likely knew about her state’s massive COVID-19 meal fraud scheme, according to nonprofit Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock.

Bock was convicted in March 2025 on charges including conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud for her alleged role in a scheme to defraud federal child nutrition funds of roughly $250 million. Authorities have alleged that Bock helped restaurant owners submit fake or inflated reimbursement claims for meals supposedly served to low-income children, which allowed participants to collect millions of dollars.

In an interview with the New York Post while awaiting sentencing, Bock said that she “struggle[s] to believe that” Representative Omar wouldn’t have known about the fraud.

Bock has denied knowingly participating in criminal conduct, arguing that she attempted to warn state officials and that her organization reviewed reimbursement paperwork submitted by participating restaurants before distributing funds. “The notion that I’m personally responsible for all of it... is so frustrating. I’m the only white person out of 80 or 90 individuals [charged in the fraud]. I’m the only one that doesn’t speak the language,” she said.

The fraud case has drawn scrutiny toward Minnesota’s Somali community after dozens of individuals were convicted in connection with building the state Department of Education for millions of meals that prosecutors said were never provided to children.

Omar was a key player in pandemic-era policy changes that loosened oversight of school meal programs. In 2020, she introduced the MEALS Act in Congress, which expanded the US Department of Agriculture’s authority to issue waivers for school meal requirements during the pandemic. Those waivers reduced certain oversight requirements, which helped create conditions that allowed the fraud to take place, per the Post.

Bock also alleged that when these waivers ran out, Omar would eventually step in.

“There had been a couple times early on that there were some gaps – a waiver would be set to expire on maybe the 15th of a month, and then the renewal didn’t kick in until the 1st,” Bock said. “Because of course this was supposed to be a short-term thing . . . we were supposed to be home for two weeks.”

Omar has faced scrutiny over a 2024 financial disclosure that listed her net worth at an unexplainable $30 million, a figure she claimed was an accounting error.