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Criminal Law Practitioner

Alena Johnston

Abstract

Since the 1930s, the public school system in the United States has provided a distinct place for students to develop, learn, and grow.  Public schools level the playing field for students in academics, allowing them to receive an education at no direct cost. However, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds continue to face challenges, and their inability to secure nutritious meals can affect their ability to perform academically. In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act, forming the first Child Nutrition Program in the United States to remedy the food security issue.

 The program was implemented as “a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities.” In its first year, this program allowed 7.1 million children to receive “low-cost or no cost lunches” every school day. In 1968, the Special Food Service Program (SFSP) for Children, a three-year pilot program, was created to provide nutritious meals for children when school was not in session. The program offered grants to each school district that provided meals to children after school and over the summer. After the three-year program was up, the Child and Adult Food Care Program (CAFCP) was promulgated as a permanent part of the Child Nutrition Program to provide nutritious meals for “day care centers, day care homes, homeless shelters, adult day care centers.” 

The primary purpose of these child nutrition programs was to allow the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to “help ensure that children receive nutritious meals and snacks that promote their health and educational readiness.” The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the USDA administered the federal programs while state agencies operated the programs at the state level through agreements with local school food authorities. Cash subsidies were given to participating school districts for every reimbursable meal they served to a student; in exchange, the school district provided a free or reduced-price meal that met Federal food nutrition requirements to eligible students children outside of educational programs.” The relaxation of standard requirements for participating in the Federal Child Nutrition Program combined with “the state government’s stay-at-home order and telework policies made it more difficult to oversee the program,” allowing for more programs to grow with little to no oversight. What was supposed to be a mechanism to continue feeding our future resulted in holes in the nutrition programs, giving individuals an opportunity to find a way to manipulate the system and profit off federal funds for their own personal gain. Unfortunately, one such instance turned into what the Department of Justice alleges to be “the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date.”

This Article will discuss an expansive pandemic relief fraud scheme allegedly organized by Aimee Marie Bock, the subject of the case, United States v. Aimee Marie Bock, et. al., who was indicted on September 20, 2022. In section II, this Article discusses the scheme Bock, the founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit dedicated to sponsoring sites for the Federal Child Nutrition Program, allegedly implemented to defraud the federal government out of 240 million dollars. In section III, Bock’s history and what led her to be allegedly involved in the scheme is discussed. In section IV, this Article details the elements of the alleged crimes Bock is charged with (i.e., conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, and federal programs bribery) and assesses the likelihood of a conviction. Finally, section V provides a background on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and concludes with an analysis of the relevant factors that may appear in Bock’s presentence report, if convicted, and how it may impact her ultimate potential sentence.

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