Every year Scoop San Diego, founded by Daniel Szpak uses ice cream as a stimulus for social change, hosting an ice cream and gelato festival to fundraise for a local nonprofit. Last year this nonprofit raised $20,000 for Monarch School in San Diego. This year it has focused its fundraising efforts for Home Start Inc., a nonprofit that provides services to prevent child abuse and neglect and strengthen families.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year, with the help of sponsor MyPoint Credit Union, the weeklong celebration of everything ice cream went virtual, beginning May 22, in front of Niederfrank’s Ice Creams.
Founded in 1948 by Elmer Niederfrank, this A Street ice cream shop is in its 77th year of operation and brings in customers from all over San Diego County with its old fashioned ice cream, made the same way today as it was in 1948. This virtual celebration is taking place at ice cream and gelato parlors all over the county through May 30 via Zoom, Instagram and Facebook Live.
“We can all use something to sweeten up our days in quarantine, and our answer is ice cream,” said Szpak in a press release. “There’s nothing like digging into a pint of mint chip ice cream to lift our spirits and remind us of the best things in life – ice cream dripping down your hand on a hot summer day, summer celebrations and being with loved ones. Ice Cream Relief Week is our way of giving back to the ice cream and gelato shops that have brought us that joy over the years, and sharing creamy deliciousness with everyone, no matter what their quarantine lifestyle is right now.”
Home Start CEO Laura Tancredi-Baese said Home Start is thrilled to be selected as Scoop San Diego’s recipient this year.
“As we all know, ice cream and happy children go hand in hand,” she said. “That is why we are looking forward to this week of fun despite the challenges we are facing with the current pandemic. There is nothing quite like ice cream to relieve stress and bring people together.”
Patti Finnegan and Mary Ellen Faught purchased the shop in 1995.
Finnegan said that she and Faught had a business plan for opening an ice store, but when they found out that Niederfrank was selling, they came in and volunteered for five months while they transitioned. She said the shop had limited hours and a couple of wholesale accounts.
“We spent the first couple of years learning it and getting to know the ice cream making process,” said Finnegan. “I then started slowly selling wholesale accounts, some scoop shops, local restaurants and hotels. I partnered with Stone Brewing, started doing some beer ice creams for them. In their bistro, they’ve been offering our ice cream since.”
Finnegan said they grew into doing more wholesale than retail, but when COVID-19 hit, wholesales bottomed out.
“We have refocused to the retail shop,” she said. “We are doing some ice cream pies, keeping hours six days a week, and doing some home deliveries. Just doing anything that we can to pay the bills and get through this period.”
The kickoff on Friday was the beginning of Ice Cream Relief Week, Szpak thought there was no better way than to support shopping at your local ice cream shop, and happy that he picked Niederman’s, said Finnegan. She said at the kick-off, the National City mayor and the chamber came out to show their support and pitched to the community to support your local businesses.
“Which really leads to any small business that you care about,” said Finnegan. “If ice cream is your favorite local thing, go out and buy an extra ice cream. You might see a line out front but that is because the process is taking longer.”
Finnegan said that she and Faught are at an age that they are not allowing employees in the shop until the COVID situation gets better handled.
“We just keep it locked down while we are making ice cream, then we keep limited hours and our line starts right at the door,” she said.
