State moves to shut down three daycares associated with Feeding Our Future defendants

Catching up with news from last month. On Feb. 7, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the state Dept. of Human Services (DHS) had moved to shut down two adult daycare operations associated with figures indicted in the Feeding Our Future free-food scandal.

Since then, the agency has taken action against a separate childcare facility.

We have previously reported on the adult daycare once owned by Liban Alishire (defendant No. 36, guilty plea No. 6) and Khadar Adan (No. 38) and located at their JigJiga Business Center on Lake Street. The Star Tribune reports that the state license for Lakes Adult Day Care was revoked by DHS. Department records show that Alishire is still the contact person for the facility. The order can be appealed.

In fact, Lakes Day Care was appealing an earlier DHS corrective order, in a case (withdrawn last month) that went all the way to the state Court of Appeals.

The second daycare was Forever Friendship Adult Day Care Center in St. Paul. This facility is co-owned by the wife/husband team of Mekfira Hussein and Abduljabar Hussein (defendant Nos. 48 and 50). Mekfira is still listed as the contact person for Forever. She is the principal of the shuttered free-food nonprofit Shamsia Hopes.

According to corporate records, Hanna Marekegn (defendant No. 47, guilty plea No. 3) was previously involved with Forever. Corporate records indicate that Marekegn was involved with a separate adult day care, which continues to hold an active license.

A separate childcare facility owned by Abduljabar, Future Scholars Childcare of Minneapolis, had its license revoked by DHS on February 17.

A childcare facility owned by defendant No. 24 voluntarily closed in March 2022.

Reportedly, DHS continues to work through the list of the 50 defendants (and perhaps others) in the Feeding Our Future case and any entities owned or controlled by that group. Earlier, the Star Tribune had reported that the fifty defendants were involved in at least 11 DHS-licensed businesses, receiving millions of dollars in state money.

We hope that DHS is, indeed, casting a wider net than just the 50. There are dozens of individuals listed in the FBI search warrants and indictments (either by name or initials) that have not been indicted in the case. Some of these unindicted conspirators own DHS licensed facilities.