Feeding Our Future Used 'Lake Street Kitchen' To Defraud Gov.: Feds

MINNEAPOLIS – A guilty plea filed in the federal government's $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case shows how the Lake Street Kitchen was used in the scheme.

Liban Yasin Alishire, 42, of Brooklyn Park became the sixth person on Tuesday to admit to his role in a scheme defrauding the federal government out of money set aside to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alishire fraudulently claimed more than $2.4 million in federal funds, authorities said. After Feeding Our Future took its cut, more than $1.7 million was paid to Alishire and his co-conspirators, according to investigators.

A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Alishire helped run the Lake Street Kitchen and Community Enhancement Services. With the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, Alishire submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement for serving meals to hundreds or thousands of children a day at Lake Street Kitchen and Community Enhancement Services, according to authorities.

Alishire falsified invoices and attendance rosters to make it look like the organizations were serving kids meals, investigators said.

Alishire also ran "Ace Distribution Services," which purported to provide meals to be served to children at the Community Enhancement Services site, according to authorities.

Federal prosecutors said that Community Enhancement Services lied about serving more than 800,000 meals between February and October 2021.

Authorities said Lake Street Kitchen lied about serving more than 70,000 meals between December 2020 and April 2021.

"In reality, Community Enhancement Services and Lake Street Kitchen served a fraction of the meal amounts claimed," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.