Food Builds Community.
Ice Cream Social began during the Wisconsin Safer at Home Order in the spring of 2020. Katrina lost her job in the early days of the pandemic so she threw herself into her hobbies to stay busy; one of which was making ice cream. Ice Cream Social was a way for her to share something with her friends, at a distance of course. The “Social” in the name was a play on social distancing. She planned to drop little containers of ice cream off at her friend’s homes for them to enjoy.
A few months later after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, she decided she wanted to do something to help support the social justice movement. That’s when she realized that her homemade ice cream could do more than just provide comfort to friends and family. In June of 2020, she designed and launched Ice Cream Social on Instagram and within two days had her first sale, raising a little over $100. From that point on the “Social” in Ice Cream Social took on a completely new meaning — giving a nod to both its format on social media and to the recipients of its proceeds. With the motto “Small Batches for Big Change,” she donated the money from her weekly ice cream sales to organizations in her community fighting for social and racial equity.
The opening of the brick-and-mortar location in March 2022 brought a lot of changes to what started as a humble little Instagram bake sale two years prior. While the format might look a little different, the goal of giving a portion of the proceeds back to the community remains the same. Ten percent of proceeds are given to featured non-profits that rotate quarterly.