Yet Another Corrupt Public-Private Partnership

Feeding Our Future Fraud

Last week the US Department of Justice filed fraud charges against 47 defendants associated with the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The organization is alleged to have fleeced taxpayers out of $250 million, laundering the money through their school lunch program during the COVID pandemic. As usual, when talking about the across-the-board failure of Minnesota’s COVID response, Governor Tim Walz is implicated.

Crimes like those alleged against Feeding Our Future exist only because ostensibly private industries like Feeding Our Future are allowed to get into bed with government bureaucrats. When the feeding trough is full, the pigs come running. The Libertarian Party of Minnesota calls for an end to all public-private partnerships, government funding of private organizations, and all other forms of crony capitalism. When a competitive market is allowed to exist, the best organizations rise and the worst fall and the entire community is better served for it.

In a statement, Libertarian Party of Minnesota Executive Director Anthony Williams said, “This is the very reason why the LPMN says taxation is theft. While we want to see hungry children fed, too often have we seen these funds ‘appropriated’ for other use.” The Libertarian Party, the only party that stands for all the rights of all the people all the time, condemns the actions of Feeding Our Future. Whether Governor Walz lied about his involvement in the crimes is almost immaterial. That he was in a position to influence children’s health and welfare, even the most basic essentials of eating a nutritious meal every day, is inexcusable.

Not to be outdone by a corrupted charitable organization, Governor Walz appears to be complicit in the coverup of his administration’s involvement in this scandal. Walz, falsely claiming that Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann ordered payments resumed to Feeding Our Future, has been caught in his lie. Walz claims he welcomes an investigation into his administration’s involvement by the Office of the Legislative Auditor. This investigation would take months to complete, giving Teflon Tim plenty of plausible deniability well past Election Day. That is obviously not good enough. The impure relationship between the Walz Administration and Feeding Our Future should never have been allowed in the first place. Walz and the Minnesota Department of Education leadership must resign immediately.

The Libertarian Party of Minnesota calls for a complete separation of charity and state. Charity, derived from the Latin word for selfless love, seeks to help, serve, and edify without regard for the cost. The state and its claimed monopoly on violence, seeks only to steal, control, and destroy. Minnesotans, especially the most vulnerable among us, deserve better than to be left up to the whims and diktats of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Minnesotans deserve freedom.