After 61 years in business, Grant Family Farms, one of the country’s largest Community Supported Agriculture farms, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
The family-owned Wellington, Colo.-farm was also one of the state’s first certified organic operations, according to the farm’s website. In the bankruptcy petition filed Dec. 28, president Andy Grant estimated between $1 million and $10 million is owed to between 200 and 999 creditors.
A voicemail system at the farm indicated its mailbox was full on Jan. 7. Grant’s attorney, Lee Kutner, was in court and could not respond to questions immediately.
Meg Bucklin, the CSA coordinator for the farm, told The Coloradoan newspaper on Jan. 5 that the farm had shut down all operations. Bucklin said the farm’s CSA had about 4,500 members, making it the second-largest CSA farm in the U.S.
A news release issued by the Grant family and posted on the farm’s Facebook page, says the farm owners are “hesitant to offer any specifics with regard to tomorrow … beyond Chapter 7, nothing is set in stone — and it is important to the farm that it doesn’t churn the cogs in the rumor mill.”
The Chapter 7 petition states the farm’s assets are between $500,000 and $1 million. The farm owners did not file a list of creditors with the petition. The federal bankruptcy judge handling the case set a Jan. 11 deadline for Grant to file financial statements and creditor schedules.
A meeting of creditors is scheduled for Jan. 22 at the Larimer Colorado Courthouse.
Grant Family Farms filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in April 2006. That case was jointly administered with a Chapter 11 filing by Fattoria Accaparanno LLC, also based in Wellington. Andy Grant was also a principal and served as president for Fattoria Accaparanno LLC. The judge in that case stated the two companies operated as a single economic entity and their customers knew them as Grant Family Farms.
The Chapter 11 case was terminated in September 2009 and designated “discharge not applicable.” Debts in that case were also estimated between $1 million and $10 million.
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