EJ Haust, a digital marketing expert and former journalist who lived in Minnesota for 12 years before relocating to Tennessee four years ago, is reminding the nation how Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s administration’s handling of the Feeding Our Future scandal was the “largest COVID-related fraud scam” in the country as Walz is being considered to be the next U.S. vice president as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate.
The scandal, which ended up squandering approximately $250 million of taxpayer dollars, involved the non-profit group Feeding Our Future allegedly orchestrating a scheme in which individuals set up fake operations to serve children meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organization allegedly submitted fake information to collect federal funds provided to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) child nutrition programs.
Haust explained how the MDE oversees the funding provided by the USDA for child nutrition programs, noting that mismanagement of funds falls under Walz’s direct oversight as the governor appoints the MDE Commissioner.
“This is important because it truly is under [Walz’s] oversight. It’s his administration that’s responsible for this entire scandal,” Haust explained on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Haust explained that during the pandemic, rules for approving meal distribution were eased, which led to organizations, including Feeding Our Future, taking advantage of the system and stealing federal funds for personal gain.
“So they set up these sites – homeschools, preschools, regular school districts, things like that – during the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture kind of waived some of these rules about who can run these sites for meal distribution and lessened the scrutiny on how things could be approved. The Minnesota Department of Education took it another step further and gave these organizations like Feeding Our Future, which is a nonprofit organization, the ability to ‘sponsor’ these sites,” Haust explained.
“What Feeding Our Future decided to do was set up 250 of these sites – and it was everything from autism centers to random businesses, for-profit restaurants – and the paperwork that happens with that is supposed to go through the approved sponsor, Feeding Our Future. That then goes to the MDE, and they reimburse that organization for the meals served,” Haust added.
However, Haust said Feeding Our Future reimbursed “fraud,” instead of “delivering meals to children in need.”
“It was all a scam. Instead of delivering meals to children in need, what was happening was Feeding Our Future and the MDE were reimbursing fraud. They ended up buying oceanfront property in other countries in Kenya and other places, cars, vacations, all of it,” Haust said.
Haust explained the fraud committed by Feeding Our Future, noting how the organization’s funding went from $3.4 million in 2019 to over $200 million in 2021.
“As far as money is concerned, Feeding Our Future went from about $3.4 million In meals and reimbursements and federal funding to over $200 million in 2021. So from 2019 to 2021, they jumped from $3 million to $200 million,” Haust explained.
Regarding Walz’s knowledge of the scandal, Haust pointed out that the governor admitted to suspecting fraud with Feeding Our Future in 2020 and, as Huast added, “basically lied” about a court order in which the governor said the MDE must continue payments to Feeding Our Future.
“There was a court order that the payments had to continue and the judge – and this never happens, this was in April 2021, so he knew about it in November 2020 continued the payments in April 2021, Walz was saying it was a judge, it was a court order, we had to keep continuing the payments. This never happens – the judge came out and said ‘No, Governor Walz has misspoken.’ He lied. He basically lied about it. The judge said no court order was put in place,” Haust explained.
Haust pointed out how Walz has not taken action against one person in his administration in the wake of the scandal.
“No one, absolutely no one, has been fired, reprimanded, let go, put on suspension – nothing,” Haust said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Background Photo “School Lunch” by woodleywonderworks. CC BY 2.0.
