Creighton Brothers President Mindy Creighton Truex stands inside the entrance of the business’ Crazy Egg Cafe and Coffee Bar, at 4217 W. Old Road 30, Warsaw, by a tractor that her husband Ron Truex restored. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — For the second year in a row, Mindy Creighton Truex is headed to the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Creighton Truex, of Kosciusko County, is going as a representative of the American Egg Board, of which she is past chairman. In fact, eggs from her family’s company, Creighton Brothers, have been sent out for a special presentation to First Lady Dr. Jill Biden at the roll on Monday, April 10.

The visits to the White House have come during Creighton Truex’s tenure as president of Creighton Brothers. She’s the third generation to be involved in the company, with her grandfather Hobart Creighton founding it with his brother Russell Creighton in 1925.

Creighton Truex said being involved in the business wasn’t her plan growing up. She originally wanted to be a veterinarian due to her love of animals.

However, plans changed and she would eventually get her Bachelor of Science in agribusiness from Purdue University after her graduation from Tippecanoe Valley High School.

Though her parents Eddie and Louise Creighton didn’t push her to join the family business, Creighton Truex said something just “kept pulling (her) back” there.

She became president in January 2020 and oversees the company’s approximately 240 employees. Creighton Brothers has the capacity for about 3,000,000 hens, which if they are all producing at peak levels, are each laying six eggs a week, she said.

Aside from producing eggs, the company also has Creighton’s Crazy Egg Cafe and Coffee Bar, at 4217 W. Old Road 30, Warsaw, which Creighton Truex helped create. It opened in 2015.

Lunch and breakfast are served there, with the company’s eggs part of the menu. There’s also a large gathering room there, The Roost, that may be rented.

Giving back is part of Creighton’s culture, with that being part of why Creighton Truex said she considers it “a blessing” to have the job she does.

“My dad started a charitable fund … the Creighton Brothers Charitable Fund at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, and so we’re able to do some bigger projects,” she said. “We’ve done some with Grace College and the YMCA (and) The Beaman Home.”

Just this week, the company donated more than 10,000 eggs to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana.

One large project that Creighton Truex said she’s especially proud of was helping build a new hall at Purdue for the school’s animal science department. The company donated stock for it, with the family opting to name the building after Creighton Truex’s grandfather and great-uncle.

The Hobart and Russell Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences was dedicated on March 22, 2018.

Creighton Truex noted she hopes more students are opting to study animal science in college. She said overall it’s harder to get started in agriculture now with high startup costs, also mentioning that she’s grateful her family started the operation when they did.

She cited “conservative values” as helping keep Creighton Brothers going for nearly 100 years.

“Sometimes I get frustrated when it comes to growth, it’s a little too conservative, but it’s what’s kept us strong,” she said. “It’s what kept us here and able to have the resources to buy new equipment, buy land when it’s available. We still try to be reasonable about what we’ll pay for it and everything, and I guess just being financially very conservative and making the right investments and trying to … do things right, the way you treat your employees, the way you work with your customers, the face you’re putting out there in the community … that’s probably enabled us as much as anything.”

Creighton Truex also talked about the importance of agriculture in Kosciusko County. Even though one might first think of the orthopedic industry when they hear Kosciusko County, agriculture is still a large part of it, with Creighton Truex pointing out the examples of Louis Dreyfus Co., Chore-Time Brock International and “a lot of great crop farmers.”

“We don’t toot our own horn,” she noted of why people might not think of ag when they think of the county.

Agriculture may be more valid than ever though, with as she said farmers now focusing on “feeding the world.”

“We’re always going to be here,” she said, referring to agriculture. “You can’t take farm ground and leave, so we’re here and we’re always going to be here in one shape or another.”

Creighton Truex is married to Ron Truex, and they have two daughters, Tracy and Heather, and four grandchildren.