Feeding Our Future: 1229 East Lake St.
The numbers behind the Feeding Our Future scandal are staggering: up to $500 million of taxpayer money lost, more than 250 suspects, 70 individuals indicted to date, etc.
To put things into perspective, from time to time I will focus on activities at a single address. An indictment earlier this month in the case caught up seven defendants, all related, and centered on 1229 E. Lake Street in south Minneapolis.
Its a two-story, multi-tenant office building, pictured above in a photo taken today.
The lead defendant in the indictment, Ikram Mohamed (Defendant No. 63), owned a childcare center once located at that address. In addition to consulting with Feeding Our Future, Ikram operated the Lake Street daycare Sharing & Caring until it closed last August.
A new, unrelated daycare business now operates at the same location.
1229 E. Lake Street was a beehive of free-food activity. The following distribution sites were registered at that address during the height of the scandal, with a combined capacity (on paper) to serve more than 6,000 children per day,
As shown above, Sharing & Caring operated its own proprietary site for feeding its authorized enrollment of 79.
In addition, Sharing & Caring appeared to host a separate effort, under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, on behalf of Mind Foundry. Defendant No. 17 in the Feeding case allegedly used the Mind Foundry brand in furtherance of his efforts.
Two other distributors, labeled “A” and “C” above, operated sites at the 1229 address, apparently unrelated to the efforts of Ikram and her relatives.
The Ikram indictment (p. 6, paragraph 20) accuses Aisha Hassan Hussein (Defendant No. 65 and Ikram’s sister) of operating United Youth of MPLS and taking $2.2 million out of the free-food programs.
United Youth operated two sites in Minneapolis, both sponsored by Feeding Our Future, and both participating in both the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).
Confusingly, the business is registered with the state Secretary of State as Untied (sic) Youth of MPLS LLC.
The alleged food vendor registered for the two United Youth sites is a restaurant located elsewhere in south Minneapolis. The restaurant has not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor has its name appeared in any indictments or search warrants. The United Youth sites were among two of at least nine sites for which the restaurant was listed as the caterer.
The 1229 site is the home of a personal care attendant (PCA) business owned by Gandi Mohamed (Defendant No. 69 and Ikram’s brother). Deena Winter of MN Reformer did a deep dive into Gandi’s Comfort Services in this piece. A sign for the business can be seen in this photo of the front door, from earlier today,
Gandi’s wife operates another state-subsidized business located at the 1229 address.
According to county property records and the indictment (paragraphs 37 and 85) the building itself is owned by Gandi through his GIF Properties.
His purchase of the building pre-dates the food scandal.