Things are melting down at Ben & Jerry’s.
The ice cream maker’s foundation will shut down at the end of the year. The Associated Press reported that its parent company, the Magnum Ice Cream Co., itself a spinoff of larger corporation Unilever, cut off the foundation’s funding and evicted its three staffers on Wednesday.
A judge will now have to rule on the fate of $600,000 a year in grants and a progressive mission the ice cream maker has been set on for 40 years.
“This is the other foot dropping in terms of the way Magnum is trying to destroy the social values of Ben & Jerry’s,” said Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, in an interview with the AP on Wednesday.
The Vermont-based iconic ice cream brand has been in a legal fight with its parent company since November 2024. Ben & Jerry’s alleges that the corporation overreached its control, pushed out its CEO and has interfered with the brand’s political views.
