A Taste of Success: Nonprofit Group Buys Ice Cream Shop to Help D.C. Youths

Marcia Slacum Greene Washington Post Staff Writer  
March 31, 2002; Page C3
©Washington Post

An hour into their shift yesterday, Nency Sanchez, 14, and Victor Concha, 15, had scooped up enough of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Full Vermonty to know the preferences of their customers. But since it was still the first week of their first jobs, the teenagers anxiously eyed the endless flow of customers and tried hard to stay calm.

At any given moment, nearly 200 people stood in line for free ice cream and to celebrate the fact that the District's Latin American Youth Center has become the new owner of the Capitol Hill Ben & Jerry's at 327 Seventh St. SE. Profits from the shop will be used to train and employ young people and to support the center's other programs.

Beginning at noon, the street outside the shop was closed to traffic, children lined up for face paintings, and a live band filled the street with music. Inside, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) declared himself the number one "overscooper" in a line of celebrity scoopers that included Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

Before the day's end, organizers said, they expected to serve 5,000 free scoops of ice cream.

"Which one is Ben and which one is Jerry?" became the number one question. Some people rushed to pose for pictures with the two, known for their social activism.

"I got to meet Ben and Jerry," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). "They are genuine American folk icons."

Cohen and Greenfield sold their popular company in 2000 to Unilever PLC, a conglomerate that owns numerous products, including a number of ice cream brands. Although the founders no longer have a management role in the nation's 245 Ben & Jerry's shops, they continue to urge the new owner to expand the company's social mission and to increase the number of shops owned by nonprofits.

"I am starting to get excited that the company is starting to do more and more to promote social benefits," Cohen said. "There is a lot more to be done. We realized that corporations are one of the most powerful forces in the country, and at Ben & Jerry's, we tried to use business as a force for progressive change."

The Latin American Youth Center, which works with more than 5,000 children and families from Latino, black and other minority communities, is the first D.C. nonprofit to take part in Ben & Jerry's PartnerShop Program, which waives the fee normally charged to use the company's name and allows the nonprofit owners to use their profits to support community-based programs.

The process was not easy. Lori M. Kaplan, the youth center's executive director, said her group had to raise $190,000 to purchase the three-year-old ice cream shop franchise in December and had to demonstrate that it had the capacity to run a business.

Kaplan said she views the business as a creative way to help young people, ages 14 to 24, obtain work experience. "More than 30 young people will participate in running the shop," she said. "They will work six to eight months and use it as a springboard to the next job opportunity in retail or customer services."

As they served the crowd of people that lined up for ice cream yesterday, Sanchez and Concha made it clear that they view their work at Ben & Jerry's as the first in many steps to a career.

"I'm learning how to deal with people," said Concha, who has been involved in youth center programs for three years. "It is preparing me for other jobs and the places I need to go. I'm going to be a doctor."