Safari Restaurant legitimately prepared and served 5,000 meals a day to children during the COVID-19 pandemic, testified former co-owner Salim Said.
Salim Said testified Monday morning in his federal fraud trial under direct questioning from his attorney, Andrian Montez, contradicting evidence prosecutors previously presented. He described working long days, seven days a week in 2020 to serve free food to his community. He described cooks starting their days as early as 4 a.m., and a social media contractor who let the community know when and where the food was available.
Salim Said testified that Safari delivered thousands of meals a day to families in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, and paid two off-duty police officers to manage car traffic from parents picking up food at his Minneapolis restaurant.
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“The line was so long, man,” Salim Said testified. “A lot of people needed food.”…