An Apple Valley woman has been indicted on federal charges that she defrauded a federal child nutrition program by fraudulently claiming to have served 600,000 meals to hungry children during five months in 2021, for which she was paid $1.4 million.

Dorothy Jean Moore is charged with falsely claiming her catering company, Jean's Soul Food, provided the meals when prosecutors allege it was little more than a shell company operated from her Apple Valley apartment and that she used federal money to buy luxury goods, cars and vacations, including over $10,000 at Louis Vuitton, a $50,000 Infinity SUV and a $58,000 Chevrolet pickup.

The federal child nutrition program historically provided meals to children in educational programs, but during the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture loosened requirements to get more food to children, allowing for-profit restaurants to participate in the program, for example.

Moore enrolled two sites in the program, under the sponsorship of a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which prosecutors say was at the center of a $250 million fraud; so far 72 people have been charged in the sprawling case. Former Feeding Our Future CEO Aimee Bock was convicted in March of seven crimes.

The indictment alleges that between November 2020 and 2022, Moore received over $1.4 million in federal funds for meals she claimed to serve at two churches. One was True Vine Fellowship Ministries in Burnsville, although she later claimed the site moved to New Hope Baptist Church in St. Paul, where she claimed to serve up to 1,500 children per day, seven days a week. The second site was at the Payne Avenue Evangelical Free Church in St. Paul, but she claimed it later moved to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis, where she's charged with falsely claiming to serve up to 1,500 children a day, seven days a week.

Prosecutors allege Moore submitted fake invoices and attendance rosters and entered sham catering contracts with her own catering company. She was reimbursed more than $1.4 million for over 600,000 meals she claimed to have served at the churches over a five-month period in 2021.

The indictment says she didn't use the federal reimbursement money to buy food for children but instead withdrew $50,000 in cash to buy a 2022 Infiniti Crossover SUV; got a $58,000 cashier's check to buy a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado; and transferred more than $600,000 to another company she owned, Jeans African Hair Braiding LLC.

New Salem Missionary Baptist Church is run by a prominent north Minneapolis pastor, the Rev. Jerry McAfee. State records indicate another food distribution site was operated from the church in 2021 and was reimbursed more than $34,000. A second food distribution site was approved at the church under the name of one of McAfee's companies, Salem Inc., but did not submit any claims for reimbursements, according to state records.

McAfee said his secretary knew of Moore, who served some food from the church but nowhere near what she claimed.

"She ain't served no 1,500 meals," he said Friday. "She didn't even do 100 a day."

As for the Salem site, he said one of his employees said another person talked about serving meals from the church.

"I know they did some meals; I don't know to what level," he said.

As for himself, he said he never got into the food program because he preferred to serve hot meals during the pandemic.