Feeding Our Future ‘mastermind’ sentenced to over 41 years in prison

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — Aimee Bock, convicted for leading a $242 million pandemic relief fraud scheme known as Feeding Our Future, has been sentenced to more than 40 years  in prison.

“This was a vortex of fraud, and you were at the epicenter,” said U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel to Bock during the sentencing hearing on Thursday morning at the Minneapolis federal courthouse.

The sentence is lower than the 50 years that federal prosecutors sought, and lower than the maximum 100-year sentence Bock faced after Brasel overruled Bock’s attorney’s arguments for a shorter sentence.

Bock, 45, was the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that recruited people to open child nutrition sites, which were eligible for federal money. The sites fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day almost immediately. Feeding Our Future submitted fraudulent claims to the Minnesota Department of Education, which was tasked with overseeing the program. Feeding Our Future disbursed the money in exchange for $18 million in kickbacks, prosecutors said.

The federal investigation into the scheme has led to over 70 indictments and nearly 60 convictions, including Bock’s conviction in 2025 by a federal jury. Bock was found guilty on all counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery.

Bock, wearing a lime green jail uniform, delivered a speech through tears after finding out her sentence.

“I made mistakes, so many mistakes. If I could go back, I would do everything differently. I don’t have the words to express just how horrible I feel,” Bock said.

Feeding Our Future would become a cataclysmic event in Minnesota’s government and politics, indirectly leading to the onset of Operation Metro Surge late last year when widespread fraud in Minnesota social safety net programs became a regular talking point for Republican politicians and MAGA media.

In the intervening years, investigators and journalists found that fraudulent meal providers also had other state contracts. Federal prosecutors have begun charging people for running fraudulent healthcare and autism treatment operations.

The issue became a national Republican talking point late last year and pushed Gov. Tim Walz out of his candidacy for a third term.