During the month of October, Ben & Jerry’s products were removed from coolers on campus, but students can expect to see a return of the ice cream products soon.
Some students searched for their favorite ice cream pints and were instead met with Hershey novelty flavors. As the dining team prepares to accommodate their requests, students can prepare for the return of a familiar face in the Lloyd’s and Hoot-n-Scoot ice cream freezers.
Jennifer Ferrell, vice president of student engagement, provided insight into the current state of Lloyd’s ice cream situation.
“I think it’s been a little over a month maybe since there hasn’t been Ben & Jerry’s in the cooler – that occurred because of some student feedback where we found there was a desire to have more ice cream novelties in the freezer – so things that are more grab and go and less of the pints and those kind of things,” Ferrell said.
She continued, “Since then I believe there has been a desire to bring it [Ben & Jerry’s] back and I believe that that is happening.”
Ferrell described her perception of the order of events leading to the change in ice cream providers.
“I think it was a case of using the student feedback – and it not quite going the way that they planned, it’s one of those things like ‘OK great, we want more of this type of thing’ so they add more – but then, in turn, take something else away and the feedback is, ‘No, we actually really liked this,’” said Ferrell.
She went on, speaking to the seamlessness of the transition, “There was no challenge with the supply – it wasn’t anything too wild, it was just, ‘OK we need to make more room so we’re going to trade this out and try something different.’”
The call from students for novelty flavors was heard by the dining team. Resident District Manager for Chartwells, Patrick Friley, provided a look into the process of getting students the dessert that they want.
“Ben and Jerry’s is distributed through New England Creamery – now they don’t carry novelties – and so we researched who we could get the best novelties from and that was Hershey – so that’s why we made the switch,” Friley said.
The switch to Hershey’s brought with it some financial benefits.
Friley said, “The other thing was Hershey offered the pints at a much cheaper rate – so we could lower the price a little bit on the cost of the ice cream.”
Friley continued, “We just completed our voice-to-vision surveys – and a number of students did ask for dairy-free (alternatives) from Ben & Jerry’s, and so what we did was we worked out a deal with Hershey’s so that they will allow us to carry a limited amount of Ben & Jerry’s flavors in their coolers because technically – they own the coolers.”
He concluded with a window into the foreseeable future of ice cream at Lloyd’s.
Friley explained, “We actually have ordered Ben & Jerry’s – the certain amounts that they have allowed us to do – and those will be coming back to the marketplace downstairs in I think two weeks. So there will be some limited flavors brought back thanks to Hershey’s allowing us to use their cooler space.”
One student, junior Hunter Duval, expressed their disappointment with the current ice cream offered on campus.
“Oh I hate it so much – for me, it wasn’t only better quality – but I just love the Ben & Jerry’s brand,” said Duval.
Ben & Jerry’s did not respond to a request for comment by print deadline.
Parker Bartlett can be contacted at
pbartlett@kscequinox.com
