Feeding Our Future: Man sentenced to 5 years for running fraudulent 'Stigma-Free' meal site in Wilmar
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A man who claimed to serve 1.6 million meals to children in Wilmar was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the Feeding Our Future scheme.
Abdikadir Ainanshe Mohamud was also sentenced to two years of supervised release after he was first indicted for wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering back in September 2022.
The court also ordered him to pay more than $3 million in restitution.
READ MORE: Feeding Our Future: Here's who is charged in the fraud scheme
Man sentenced to federal prison for running bogus meal site in Wilmar
What we know:
Investigators found that Mohamud ran the Stigma-Free site in Willmar, a town of about 21,000 people in western Minnesota.
Court documents say that within weeks after creating the Stigma-Free Willmar site, the defendant falsely claimed to be serving meals to 3,000 children a day, seven days a week, from FaaFan restaurant, a small storefront restaurant in downtown Willmar.
This operation reportedly received more than $4 million in fraudulent Federal Child Nutrition Program funds.
Mohamud initially opened Stigma Free in October 2020 under sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, court documents show.
What's next:
Court records show a motion for self-surrender was granted, and Mohamud must turn himself in to authorities by Oct. 20, 2026.
The backstory:
So far, 79 people have been charged in the Feeding Our Future scheme.
That included Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock, who was convicted in 2025 and sentenced to 40 years, which she is now appealing.
In total, prosecutors say those involved defrauded the government of roughly $250 million in funds from the USDA by opening hundreds of supposed meal sites for kids during the pandemic and then claiming to feed thousands each day.
The Source: This story uses information from federal court documents and previous FOX 9 reporting.