Book Description

The name "Hershey" is synonymous the world over with only the sweetest associations-a philanthropic, self-made millionaire, a bucolic Pennsylvania farm town, and of course, chocolate. As Milton Hershey amassed his fortune in the early 1900s from the colossally successful Hershey Chocolate Company, he put it back into the community, and nowhere was this generosity more visible than in the founding of the Milton Hershey School. Intended as a haven for fatherless orphan boys, the school took in young boarders with the intention of instilling them with Christian values, a strong work ethic, and the promise of a better future. But all was not what it seemed. The Chocolate Trust tells a different history of the Milton Hershey School-a story of children who worked the farms as indentured pupils, and who were often mistreated or violated by those on staff. It tells the story of a trust that has raked in billions of dollars in endowments, dollars that are steered away from the intended beneficiaries-the children. And it looks at the recent history of the school, and a decade that has seen more dropouts than graduates. Bob Fernandez's riveting and sobering account of the Milton Hershey School uncovers how funds were diverted from the school and put toward the multimillion-dollar Hershey Medical Center, a luxury golf course and an expansion of Hershey Entertainment, all while state officials and Trust businessmen claimed that there just weren't enough poor children in America to help. Through shrewd reporting and original accounts, The Chocolate Trust makes it clear that the legacy of the Milton Hershey School has made Hershey, Pennsylvania far from "the sweetest place on earth." Book jacket.