More: A 2024 audit report by the Minnesota legislature examining the Feeding Our Future scandal said officials with the Education Department complained that the USDA was unresponsive when they asked about how to deal with problems presented by the nonprofit.

"For example, one MDE official told us that in communications between MDE and USDA about initiating administrative action against Feeding Our Future, USDA pushed responsibility back to MDE, telling the department that it should make decisions consistent with federal regulations," the report said.

The report also said that when the state asked about unusual attendance patterns reported at child meal sites namely, perfect daycare attendance over an extended period, which was a red flag for fraud the USDA said the attendance pattern was plausible under pandemic rule changes in effect at the time. "When MDE reached out to USDA to notify it of unusual attendance patterns, USDA responded that perfect attendance would be possible due to the waivers," according to the report.

In April 2020, after the state hesitated to approve eight new feeding sites for Feeding Our Future, the organization threatened to file a lawsuit accusing the government of racial discrimination against the Somali community that the organization served.

A former USDA official, who requested anonymity during an interview with HuffPost, recalled a state official asking the federal government for support to defend against the allegations. The state sought a letter of support from the USDA saying the number of meals Feeding Our Future claimed to be serving was implausible and could be a sign of fraud. "These numbers don't look right, and the state is justified in taking the action that it is taking," the former USDA official recalled thinking. "We discussed it as being fraud."

The official urged higher-ups at USDA to support the state's suspicion of fraud, but they declined. They didn't want to get involved.

"I was very frustrated and disappointed that we didn't act faster," the former official said. "We were waiting for it to hit the papers. When it did, nobody was surprised."