Trickling Springs Creamery lost the respect of Mennonite communities: WaPo
The owners of Trickling Springs Creamery lost the respect and standing in conservative Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania and Maryland when the business closed this year, according to a story in The Washington Post.
Trickling Springs, which bought milk from 32 family farms to make products that it sold up and down the East Coast, shut down its Chambersburg store and manufacturing facility in October after 18 years in business.
There had been a "rising fear in the Mennonite community that Trickling Springs was not as stable as it appeared. That the creamery was, in fact, a house of cards ready to collapse," according to WaPo.
Their fears were not unfounded, as federal and and state authorities had been investigating "unorthodox ways the company raised capital to keep competitive in a dairy industry that’s already suffering from oversupply and changing American tastes," WaPo reported.
More:Community 'heartbroken' over closing of Chambersburg's Trickling Springs Creamery
The Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities was investigating the owners for allegedly bilking $8 million from investors. The suspected scheme involved selling promissory notes without disclosing pertinent financial information and ultimately failing to pay investors any proceeds.
One Mennonite who runs a dairy farm in Knoxville, Md., that once sold milk to Trickling Springs told WaPo: “Everybody knows there were lies involved. That’s what hurts everybody."