Brooklyn Center Couple Sentenced to Combined 97 Months in $8.8 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud

A Brooklyn Center couple was sentenced Tuesday to a combined 97 months in federal prison for their roles in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, one of the largest cases of pandemic-era public benefits theft uncovered in Minnesota.

Mekfira Hussein, 42, received 57 months, while her husband, Abduljabar Hussein, 45, received 40 months. U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel handed down the sentences after both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud — Mekfira on Jan. 31, 2025, and Abduljabar five days later, on Feb. 5.

Prosecutors say the couple obtained roughly $8.8 million in federal child nutrition funds through a nonprofit Mekfira ran called Shamsia Hopes, which was enrolled in the Federal Child Nutrition Program through Feeding Our Future. Between October 2020 and 2022, the organization claimed to be serving as many as 5,000 children a day, seven days a week, at sites in the Brooklyn Center area.

Federal investigators say that claim was built on fabricated records — fake meal counts, false attendance rosters and fraudulent invoices covering more than 3.4 million meals that were never served.

Abduljabar registered a separate company, Oromia Feeds LLC, as a food vendor supplying his wife’s sites. Prosecutors say Mekfira funneled at least $5.4 million to that company, though only a small portion of the money was ever spent on food. The couple is also accused of paying at least $140,000 in kickbacks to Feeding Our Future employee Abdikerm Eidleh and at least $12,000 to the organization’s founder, Aimee Bock, some of it disguised as consulting fees.

Court records show the couple used program funds to pay off their mortgage and buy luxury vehicles. Both were ordered to pay $8,886,380 in restitution.

U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said the sentences reflect the seriousness of the theft.

“The Husseins stole money that was meant for vulnerable children. Their sentences today reflect my office’s commitment to holding those who defraud the American taxpayer accountable.”

Part of a Much Larger Scheme

The Hussein case is one piece of the broader Feeding Our Future fraud, which the Department of Justice says totaled more than $240 million funneled through more than 250 sites statewide. Aimee Bock, who led the operation, was sentenced in May to 500 months in federal prison. Abdikerm Eidleh, accused of taking kickbacks and recruiting fraudulent meal sites, was arrested in Mogadishu in June.

The Justice Department announced its 68th conviction tied to the scheme in July, and three more defendants were sentenced to a combined 155 months on Aug. 27.

Feeding Our Future’s disbursements of federal funds ballooned from about $3.4 million in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021, a growth curve that a 2024 state legislative audit found the Minnesota Department of Education failed to scrutinize despite early warning signs. The audit concluded MDE “failed to act on warning signs known to the department prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Hussein sentencing adds to a growing list of convictions in a case that has drawn sustained scrutiny of how federal child nutrition dollars were overseen — and misused — at the state level.