Salim Said, co-owner of Safari Restaurant, testified in his own defense in the Feeding Our Future trial on Monday in federal court.

Said told the judge he wanted to testify in his own defense on Friday after co-defendant Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding Our Future, finished her testimony. The two are accused of conspiring to steal $250 million of taxpayer money from the child nutrition program.

Through his testimony on Monday, Said described serving thousands of meals per day. He told jurors that Safari Restaurant delivered thousands of meals daily to Riverside Plaza, a group of apartment buildings in a largely Somali community, alone.

Said also said that parents would come to Safari Restaurant to pick up meals.

“We never gave out food to kids. We gave out food to parents who were picking up food for their kids,” he said, adding that sometimes, a family would pick up meals for several families at a time.

Photos and videos showing several tables lined with boxes of meals were shown to the jury.

Investigators say Bock signed off on fake meal counts as Feeding Our Future funneled millions to locations across Minnesota, falsely claiming to feed thousands of children a day during the pandemic.

But Said is accused of profiting more than any one person. Salim Limited LLC received over $5 million in food program funds, according to prosecutors.

“This program made you and your partners rich, correct?” questioned Federal Prosecutor Joe Thompson during cross-examination. Said simply replied, “Yes.”

Said maintained through his testimony that there wasn’t any fraud while he was running the site at Safari Restaurant — but seemingly placed blame on co-owner Abdulkadir Nur Salah, who pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme. Said said that Salah took on a larger role at Safari once the restaurant opened as a distribution site, claiming that he took this time to take some time off and spend time with his family.

When asked about payments made to Abdikerm Eidleh, Said denied that the payments were kickbacks and said he paid them at the direction of Salah.

“There’s no reason not to trust my business partner,” he told jurors, later adding, “Why would I pay a kickback when I was already in the program?”

Said’s criminal history also came into question. Court records from Indiana show he was convicted of forgery, fraud and theft in 2011. Said denied committing the crimes, saying that his uncle stole someone’s credit card and set him up.

Attorneys will finish questioning Said on Tuesday before moving on to closing arguments.

Stay with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS for ongoing reporting on air and online. You can find more of KSTP’s reporting on the Feeding Our Future case here.