Ice Cream From Out Of State? Ice Cream Makers Rally To Help Gifford’s Open

Like many ice cream spots that have opened across the state, Gifford's is gearing up to do the same.

Only when Gifford's Ice Cream stands open this month, some things will be a little bit different..at least for the time being.

The first thing that will be different is that the Auburn stand will not be reopening this year. That was in the works after it closed early last year.

Next, with production in their Skowhegan plant halted temporarily (after a fire destroyed a great deal of the key components of ice cream making back in February) the folks at Gifford's have had to think outside of the box, or in this case, the carton.

With an extensive network of fellow ice cream makers and community members stepping up with offers to help the Maine-based ice cream favorite, plans have been put into place so that stands will be able to open. Ice cream will be scooped, and repairs will be made to ensure the company can get back to the business of churning out our favorite flavors before too long.

According to a statement put out by Gifford's, the fifth-generation ice cream company has teamed up with a handful of partners to produce Gifford's famous ice cream outside of their Skowhegan plant, while they repair the damage the fire left behind.

"These production partners meet Gifford’s stringent standards, and will use Gifford’s recipes and ingredient specifications. A few Gifford’s flavors will not be available for a short period of time as these partners are unable to duplicate the proprietary process for certain bases and ripples that the family makes in-house. Those flavors will return once the company is manufacturing again from its Skowhegan plant. "

In addition to the partners taking over production for the ice cream company, Gifford's will also temporarily outsource where they get the ice cream from, for the stands this season.

"To provide ice cream to its four family-owned stands, Gifford’s has partnered with a family-owned Florida-based ice cream company. Gifford’s plans to temporarily purchase and serve the Florida-based company’s product at its stands until the Maine-based company can get back to producing its own ice cream."

Lindsay Skilling, CEO and fifth-generation ice cream maker says “We’ve had so many in the industry, especially other family-owned ice cream makers, reach out to us following the fire. This is a family-owned business that we know and trust; they have similar values as ours and they make high-quality products. No other stand in Maine serves their ice cream, and we are so thankful for their help during this challenging time.”

The first Gifford's Stand to open for the season will be in Bangor, on March 17th at noon.

The Waterville Family-Owned stand will open the next Friday, March 24th at noon.

Then Farmington's stand will open the Friday after that, on the 31st at noon.

The last stand, Gifford's Skowhegan Family-Owned stand will open Friday, April 7th at noon.

See you there!