The renovation of Stocking Hall has forced a halt to the production of Cornell’s famous ice cream. Once the supply of Cornell Dairy ice cream runs out during the spring semester, the relocated scooping station in Trillium Express will begin serving Premium Perry’s Ice Cream. The renovation of Stocking Hall, which houses the Cornell Dairy Bar and the Cornell Dairy Plant, has forced a halt to the production of Cornell’s famous ice cream until the building’s reopening in early 2013. Once the supply of Cornell Dairy ice cream runs out — which is predicted to happen during the spring semester — the relocated scooping station in Trillium Express will begin serving Premium Perry’s Ice Cream.
“In the past three months, we have been stocking our inventory of ice cream in the freezer as [much] as possible. The inventories should last us about ten to twelve months. We will serve Perry’s Ice Cream when the supplies run out in spring 2011,” said Jason Huck, general manager of Cornell Dairy Operations. “In a couple of days, we will post our inventories on the website so students can go to the website and see how many gallons and pints of ice cream we still have left.”
According to Huck, the dairy operations have moved to a small processing unit in the food science laboratory building. Huck said that ice cream would cost a considerable amount to produce on a temporary basis in the laboratory building, so they had to halt the production.
“We have decided as a team to import another brand of ice cream. There is no way for us to continue the production of ice cream on campus and it’s not the same to make it anywhere else,” Huck said. “We have chosen to bring in Perry’s Ice Cream because it is also a brand of high quality and its premium ice cream is known to be creamier than other ice creams.”
Despite Cornell Dairy’s efforts to maintain the quality of ice cream served on campus, students give mixed feedback regarding the proposed changes.
“I have been telling students who come by about switching from Cornell Dairy ice cream to Perry’s Ice Cream in the spring, and they are not happy about it,” said Donna Inman, food service worker at the scooping operations unit at Trillium Express. “I hope the sale of ice cream in the spring will not go down, but I am sure it will.”
When informed of the changes, Sara Zhang ’11, who said she pays periodic visits to the scooping station at Trillium, expressed her dismay at the replacement because she was uncertain about the quality of Perry’s Ice Cream.
While the substitution does not appeal to students at first glance, Huck said that Cornell Dairy planned to collect students’ suggestions on flavors of ice cream to be imported through an electronic poll on their website.
“We are even looking to have Perry’s Ice Cream reproduce some of our favorite flavors on campus, such as very raspberry fudge and French vanilla,” Huck said.
Huck called for community support during this renovation period. The revenue generated from the sale of ice cream will support the staff, research extension and production of other products at Cornell Dairy while the construction is underway.
“The Cornell Dairy plant has not died,” he said. “Things are being rebuilt at Stocking Hall. Even though Stocking Hall has closed down, we are still here on campus.”
Original Author: Jackie Lam