Attorneys Clayton Carlson (left) Andrew Birrell (right) and Steven Schleicher (second from right) flank defendant Said Shafii Farah on the first day of testimony in the Feeding Our Future trial. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.
BY: DEENA WINTER
MINNEAPOLIS (Minnesota Reformer) – The finance director for Shakopee schools testified Monday that the district distributed meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic, but far fewer than those reported by Feeding Our Future defendants charged with defrauding the federal government.
The federal prosecutors’ implication via the testimony was clear: The Feeding Our Future defendants were juicing — and inventing — their totals.
Bill Menozzi, director of finance for Shakopee schools, said the district continued to offer weekday meals for pickup at its high school and by delivering to 10 low-income areas of the southwest Minneapolis suburb.
Menozzi said about 300 to 600 students picked up meals during the pandemic, with numbers varying based on weather and the day of the week. Another 30 to 60 students showed up to get meals delivered to the 10 mobile home parks, townhomes and apartment complexes.
Prosecutors allege the defendants only served about 10% of the 18.8 million meals they claimed to serve during the pandemic program, and used most of the $40 million they were paid by the government to buy luxury cars, vacations, homes and property.
Seven people went on trial last week in Minneapolis out of 70 people charged in connection with the $250 million fraud case. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
Menozzi testified about three sites where the school district gave out free meals that were also purported food distribution sites run by the defendants.
He said school employees handed out 20 to 40 meals on average at Clifton Townhomes, and he never saw any other people distributing meals there.
The defendants claimed to be feeding about 400 people daily — ballooning to about 1,000 — during the pandemic.
“I don’t believe that would be possible,” Menozzi said, citing the logistical challenges of serving that many people in the densely populated area with a small parking area with room for 50 to 70 cars.
Menozzi testified that the school district served about 20 to 50 meals per day at the Sarazin Flats Apartments, in contrast to about 500 meals the defendants claimed they served daily.
School employees also served about 40 meals daily at the Bonnevista mobile home park, in contrast to the defendants’ claim of over 200 per day. The mobile home park is right across from Menozzi’s school district office, and he said he never saw anyone else delivering meals at the location.
Defendants also said they had a food distribution site at The Landing, a historical park in Shakopee.
But William Walker, former cultural resource manager at The Landing, testified that he never saw anyone serving meals — and nobody asked for permission to do so — during the six months defendants claimed to have served nearly 100,000 free meals.
Walker and another former Landing employee said they never saw cars lined up to get food or signs of wear and tear from thousands of people visiting.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Walcker took Walker through each of the six months of 2020 when defendants said they were serving breakfasts and lunches in numbers that grew from 3,000 in July 2020 to 14,260 in December 2020.
“I didn’t see any meals being served at The Landing,” he testified.
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