Feeding Our Future: Salim Said Sentenced to 30 Years

One of the central figures in the Feeding Our Future fraud, the Minnesota scheme to collect federal money for meals that children never received, is headed to prison for three decades. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sentenced Salim Said, 37, co-owner of the former Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, to 30 years in federal prison on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, MPR News reported. "Feeding Our Future" is trending on Google Trends in the U.S. this week, with 100+ searches in the past day, as a second sentencing in the case followed on Friday. Here is what happened and where the case stands.

What we know about the Salim Said sentence

A federal jury convicted Said in 2025 on all 21 counts he faced, including wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering, according to MPR News and the Minnesota Star Tribune. He was tried alongside Aimee Bock, the leader of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit.

Sources: MPR News; FOX 9; Star Tribune.

What the judge said

"You took more than taxpayer money to enrich yourself," Brasel told Said, according to MPR News. "You took the reputation of our state down with you. It's my hope that one day the words 'Minnesota' and 'fraud' won't be spoken in the same sentence, but I fear that day is a long way off." FOX 9 reported that the judge also held Said responsible for "the breaking of the public's faith in government."

What each side argued

Federal prosecutors sought 40 years, arguing in a filing quoted by the Star Tribune that Said "deliberately weaponized a federal safety net designed to feed hungry children during one of the most vulnerable crises in modern history." FOX 9 reported that prosecutors acknowledged Said wasn't involved in "every dollar" stolen but called him a central player. KARE 11 reported that prosecutors described him as the "undisputed architect" of the operation.

The defense asked for 12 years, urging the court to weigh Said's difficult upbringing and disputing the government's portrayal of him as a main player, the Star Tribune reported.

Money, property and deportation risk

Prosecutors said Said and other defendants connected to Safari stole $44 million from the federal programs, and that at the height of the scheme Said personally submitted 6,000 phony meal claims for Safari, MPR News reported. Brasel previously ordered him to forfeit $7.8 million, along with a 2021 Chevrolet pickup, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz, real estate in Minneapolis and Plymouth, and a commercial building in Columbus, Ohio. MPR also reported that because Said is a legal permanent U.S. resident, he could face deportation.

What is the Feeding Our Future case?

Feeding Our Future was a Minnesota nonprofit that sponsored meal sites under federally funded child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors say Bock and others stole several hundred million dollars by filing fraudulent reimbursement claims backed by phony invoices, falsified meal-count forms and rosters listing the names of fictional children, according to MPR News. FOX 9 describes it as a $250 million scheme, and the Star Tribune calls it the largest pandemic-era fraud scandal in the United States.

The Associated Press reported that Said's Safari Restaurant, which specialized in Somali dishes, was accused of vastly overstating the number of meals it served.

How big the prosecution has become

• 81 defendants have been charged since 2022, MPR News reports.
• 32 had been sentenced as of Oct. 28, 2026.
• Aimee Bock was sentenced in May 2026 to nearly 42 years.
• Said's 30-year term is the third-longest so far, behind Bock and Abdiaziz Farah, who was convicted at an earlier 2024 trial and later pleaded guilty to trying to bribe a juror.
• Feeding Our Future employee Abdikerm Eidleh, whom prosecutors say Said bribed, was arrested in Somalia in June and returned to the U.S., according to MPR News.

The juror bribery sentence on Oct. 30

Two days after Said's hearing, a separate chapter of the case closed. U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud sentenced Said S. Farah, 44, to 78 months (6½ years) in prison for taking part in a plot to bribe a juror, MPR News reported. Farah had been acquitted of fraud at the first Feeding Our Future trial in 2024, but later pleaded guilty in the bribery plot.

According to MPR, on June 2, 2024, during that trial, a woman delivered $120,000 in a gift bag to the home of a juror identified only as Juror 52, along with a note promising more money if she voted to acquit. The juror called police as soon as she found it, and the FBI investigation that followed led to charges against five people. "It's not overstating things at all to say that Juror 52 is a hero," Tostrud said.

Abdiaziz Farah, who led the bribery plot, was sentenced in July to 10 years, to be served after the 28-year fraud sentence Brasel had already imposed. Two other people charged in the bribery plot, Ladan M. Ali and Abdimajid M. Nur, face sentencing in November, MPR reports.

Why it matters

The case has become shorthand in Minnesota for how emergency pandemic programs can be exploited when oversight is loose. Brasel's remarks at Said's hearing reflect how much the case has shaped the state's reputation. With dozens of defendants still to be sentenced, more hearings are expected, and each one is likely to keep the case in the news. For more on how courts handled another high-profile case this month, see our coverage of Chris Brown's sentencing in London.

What happens next

• November 2026: Ladan M. Ali and Abdimajid M. Nur are due to be sentenced in the juror bribery plot, per MPR News.
• Supervised release: After prison, Said must serve three years of supervised release.
• Restitution: Said owes more than $44 million, in addition to the property already forfeited.
• More defendants: With 81 charged and 32 sentenced so far, many cases remain open.

The bottom line

Salim Said, described by prosecutors as an architect of the Feeding Our Future scheme, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $44 million in restitution on Oct. 28, 2026. It is the third-longest sentence so far in a case that has charged 81 people since 2022, and a separate judge sentenced a co-defendant in the juror bribery plot to 78 months on Oct. 30. More sentencings are scheduled for November.