Sharon Ross Sentenced in Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme

Sharon Ross, the executive director of a St. Paul food shelf called House of Refuge Twin Cities, was sentenced on February 7, 2025 to 43 months in federal prison for stealing roughly $2.4 million from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs as part of the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. She pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, agreed to pay more than $2.4 million in restitution, and was ordered to forfeit the house she bought with the stolen money.

What Ross Did

Ross enrolled House of Refuge Twin Cities in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under two sponsors: Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care. The program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and overseen in Minnesota by the state Department of Education, pays organizations on a per-meal basis for feeding children in need. Pandemic-era waivers had loosened the rules to allow for-profit restaurants to participate and permit off-site distribution.¹

Between September 2021 and February 2022, Ross claimed House of Refuge was operating food distribution sites at a dozen Twin Cities churches, serving meals prepared by Brava Cafe, a Minneapolis restaurant run by her business partner Hanna Marekegn. Religious leaders at those churches told investigators their congregations never took part in any such program. Ross also claimed to deliver meals directly to families at their homes and fabricated signatures on the authorization forms. In one case she falsely reported that a woman had five children in order to inflate the count.²

Across roughly six months, she submitted claims for nearly 900,000 meals that were never served, using fake children’s names and invented attendance records. Prosecutors pointed to one stretch when she reported 10,000 meals over two weeks and only a “tiny fraction” of that number were actually distributed.³ The scheme generated about $2.4 million in federal reimbursements.

Where the Money Went

Ross admitted using the funds for personal expenses. She bought a house in Willernie, Minnesota, for $100,000. She took vacations to Las Vegas and Florida, purchased a suite at a Minnesota Timberwolves game at Target Center, bought a car for $21,000, and made credit card and loan payments totaling $17,000.⁴

She also moved more than $900,000 to family members through no-show payroll positions at House of Refuge. In one instance she put a disabled family member on the payroll, claiming he worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, while he was simultaneously receiving full-time personal care assistance at home.² She paid more than $640,000 to Marekegn between November 2021 and February 2022, during a period when Brava Cafe was providing no meals.⁴

The Indictment and Guilty Plea

Ross was charged on March 7, 2023, in a 12-count federal indictment filed under seal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. She was arraigned on March 23, 2023, and pleaded not guilty.⁵ On January 10, 2024, she reversed course and pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud before Judge Nancy E. Brasel, becoming the 17th defendant to plead guilty in the broader Feeding Our Future investigation.³ The plea agreement required her to pay $2.4 million in restitution and forfeit the Willernie house.

The Sentence

Judge Brasel sentenced Ross on February 7, 2025 to 43 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and $2,434,360 in restitution, and ordered forfeiture of all property derived from the fraud.⁶ She was ordered to report to federal prison on March 25, 2025.

From the bench, Brasel told Ross: “You didn’t do one part of the fraud, you did the whole thing. You created the forms, you submitted the forms, you created the rosters and the food counts. And that’s different from someone who has one sliver of a larger fraud.” The judge called her conduct “flagrant fraud.”² The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph H. Thompson, Harry M. Jacobs, Matthew S. Ebert, and Daniel W. Bobier.⁶

Her Business Partner

Hanna Marekegn, the Brava Cafe owner who acted as the supposed food supplier for House of Refuge, pleaded guilty on October 13, 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Marekegn had separately enrolled Brava Cafe as its own program site under Feeding Our Future, claiming she would serve up to 4,000 children per day, and received about $7.1 million in federal funds through that arrangement.⁷ According to her trial testimony, she was collecting roughly $600,000 a month in fraudulent reimbursements at one point in early 2021. As of early 2025 she was still awaiting sentencing.⁸

How Ross’s Case Fits the Wider Scheme

Ross was one of nearly 80 defendants charged in the Feeding Our Future investigation, which federal prosecutors have described as the largest pandemic-era fraud scheme in the United States, involving more than $240 million in stolen federal funds. Feeding Our Future, the Minneapolis nonprofit at the center of the scheme, grew from disbursing $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021 as it opened more than 250 sites across Minnesota. Many of those sites were fraudulent, staffed by few or no workers, with attendance rosters populated by names pulled from random-name-generator websites.¹

As of April 2026, 79 people had been charged in connection with the scheme, with 64 convicted (57 by guilty plea and seven at trial) and two acquitted.⁹ Ross’s 43-month term sits well below the sentences handed to the ringleaders and well above the probationary sentences given to minor participants:

Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding Our Future, was convicted at trial in March 2025 on all seven counts of wire fraud and bribery and sentenced in May 2026 to 500 months (about 41.5 years) in prison, with $243 million in restitution. Judge Brasel called her the “epicenter” of a “vortex of fraud.”¹⁰
Abdiaziz Farah was sentenced to 28 years in prison in August 2025.
Mukhtar Shariff was sentenced to 17.5 years.
Mohamed Jama Ismail was sentenced to 12 years.
Khadar Adan received one year of probation and $1,000 in restitution.¹¹

1
FBI. Dozens Charged in $250 Million COVID Fraud Scheme
2
MPR News. Judge Sentences Feeding Our Future Defendant to 3 1/2 Years, Citing Flagrant Fraud
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Big Lake Woman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud in $250 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme
4
Sahan Journal. Feeding Our Future Fraud Guilty Plea: Sharon Ross
5
CourtListener. United States v. Ross
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Feeding Our Future Defendant Sentenced to 43 Months in Prison for Her Flagrant Role in $250 Million Fraud Scheme
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Three Defendants Plead Guilty to Their Roles in $250 Million Feeding Our Future Fraud Scheme
8
Sahan Journal. Feeding Our Future Trial: Aimee Bock Kickback
9
MPR News. Feeding Our Future Defendant Avoids Prison After Early Cooperation
10
U.S. Department of Justice. Feeding Our Future Ringleader Sentenced to 500 Months
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Sahan Journal. Who Has Been Sentenced in Feeding Our Future