Owners of The Hungry Goat say their names have been ‘defamed and lied about’

FLOWOOD, Miss. (WLBT) - The owners of a now-closed local catering business are speaking out after an engaged couple said the business canceled their order just weeks before their wedding - and that they hadn’t received a refund.

According to documentation, the couple, Scott Welch and Laurie Farris, paid close to $3,800 for the catering services.

When WLBT spoke with Welch and Farris, they said they hadn’t received any response on when or how that money would be given back. The couple said they would be filing a small claims suit against The Hungry Goat in hopes of getting a refund.

Now the owners are responding.

In a Facebook post on May 26, two weeks after the couple’s story aired, Jordan Yamas, the owner of The Hungry Goat, stated, “The rumor mill has been spinning.”

“Since EVERYONE HAS BEEN PAID IN FULL about 2 weeks ago (just about 2 weeks after we closed), just as was stated in their emails, and I have had some time to process…I finally feel comfortable to speak,” she continued.

Yamas would begin the post by saying that her family dynamic has “drastically changed,” and that her family has “needed us more than ever.”

The engaged couple WLBT spoke with did say that they had received an email from The Hungry Goat which told them that the business would be canceling their event for “personal reasons,” but that they would receive a refund.

“So we asked, ‘Well, how do we get our money?’ That’s when we were told we would have to contact their lawyer and accountant,” they said. The couple said they never heard back from either party.

The couple claimed they had been contacted by others who were encountering a similar situation with the caterers.

“We had another lady, she was a teacher and they had an event... [The Hungry Goat] actually ran her credit card on Monday and they canceled everything on Tuesday,” the couple said.

3 On Your Side reached out to both the attorney for The Hungry Goat and the owners of The Hungry Goat for a response the day the story ran, however, none was given.

In her Facebook post, Yamas said it was “shameful” to see her and her husband’s names “defamed and lied about... to the benefit of others because our private family matters were inconvenient to them.” She said that her family matters have been exploited for “click-bait,” and that her family has been harassed.

Yamas ended her Facebook post by writing that she and her husband, Paul Yamas, are proud of their accomplishments at The Hungry Goat, and that, “Regardless of what anyone writes or posts, we had some really good times and some talented employees that helped us through the years.”

Following her post, WLBT News reached out to Jordan and Paul Yamas to ask if they would like to speak. They said they did not wish to move forward with a news story.

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