The owner of the ice cream truck fights hunger for 1 ball at a time

Rogers, Arkansas. Last week, thousands of exhibitors and attendees gathered in Northwest Arkansas for FreightWaves’ first two-year personal event, The Future of Supply Chains, and many met Coleman Warren, who made an attractive face and a delicious ice cream scoop.

He did it with pure intentions – to fight for food security.

Warren, 22, of Farmington, Arkansas, is the founder of Simple + Sweet Creamery, a mobile ice cream business. Last week he graduated from Arkansas University in Fayetteville with double degrees in industrial engineering and political science. He is one of 32 Rhodes Scholarship winners in the US, and it is the first of the state’s largest universities since 2000.

Warren’s bride, 22-year-old Bailey King, also from Farmington, is the creative director Simple + sweet. The idea to open a mobile ice cream business came to the couple after both served at AmeriCorps VISTA in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2019.

“In Omaha, Bailey and I fed about 600 children a day through the summer dinner program,” Warren FreightWaves said. “Although Nebraska was not included in the list of the most dangerous food security in the United States, Arkansas was, so we began to explore how we can help.”

Summer volunteering for AmeriCorps VISTA and tasting high-quality ice cream inspired him and King to set up their own cream production in Northwest Arkansas using locally sourced goods, with most of the profits going to fight hunger.

“For every pint of ice cream purchased at Simple + Sweet, more than 50% of the proceeds are donated to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank,” Warren said.

According to Patrick Bluth, director of brands and ecology, social affairs and management TransfixNew York-based company FreightTech, a meal fee at the FreightWaves event has allowed Simple + Sweet Creamery to feed more than 5,000 families in Northwest Arkansas.

Bluet says he has approached Warren and King about the fact that their mobile ice cream will appear at the FreightWaves event, after watching a segment of T.J. Holmes on “Good Morning America,” in which Warren was featured in April.

Holmes, a 1999 graduate of the University of Arkansas, returned to his alma mater as the host of GMA’s Rise and Shine, announcing that Aldi would donate £ 20,000 of food to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank as well as $ 5,000. a cream factory to combat child hunger in recognition of Warren’s charitable work.

“When we knew we were coming to Northwest Arkansas for the FreightWaves event, we wanted to collaborate with their local superhero, Coleman Warren,” Blut told FreightWaves. “It’s the heart and soul of why we all do what we do in terms of logistics.”

At the FreightWaves event, the Transfix marketing team renamed Simple + Sweet’s core tastes to reflect the theme of trucking, including Vanilla (Billy) Bean, who is Oakland A’s executive vice president of baseball operations. He was a keynote speaker at the FOSC event.

Jacob Arnold, chief gift officer of Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, told FreightWaves that Warren and Simple + Sweet intend to change the world as well as draw attention to food security issues in his home state.

“Coleman is one of a kind,” Arnold said.

Food security

Warren said the effects of food security are often overlooked.

“I think a lot of people say, ‘Well, if these kids just focus on their education, they’ll go to college and get a good job.’ But how can you dream of who you can be if you don’t know where dinner comes from? ”

At the time of publication, Warren’s Simple + Sweet Creamery had provided more than 15,000 dishes to help fight children’s hunger.

What’s next?

When the couple travels to Oxford, England, Warren said he is looking for a majority shareholder to head Simple + Sweet until his fall.

“I want someone to donate part of the profits to fight hunger. It’s important to me, “Warren said. “It’s hard to say goodbye to my child, and I want to make sure the person who takes him on is committed to fighting food security.”

Warren and King plan to get married on June 5th. A week after the wedding the couple plans to travel to Washington, where Warren will be attending The Truman Foundation Summer Institute Programthey will then head to Oxford, England, where Warren will begin training in October.

Warren said King, who was a Fulbright semifinalist, plans to find work in a research company in neuroscience or in an art therapy company because she received a degree in psychology from the University of Arkansas.

Both are trying to fight child hunger.

“Bailey and I realized that it’s ridiculous that people don’t understand how many families and children are here, near schools or right on the street, who are hungry,” Warren said.

Bluet agreed.

“A key part of the Transfix sustainable development platform is to have a significant impact on the communities in which we serve and participate,” Blut said. “His aspiration completely coincides with our goal of being focused. I am very grateful to Coleman, Jacob and the Freightwaves team for the partnership to make this possible. Simple, cute and casual. ”

Arnold said his organization, Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, distributed 14 million pounds of food and provided 11.3 million meals for the region’s four counties in 2021.

His organization is working with more than 120 partner agencies to help feed more than 80,000 food-insecure neighbors in the region.

“I met Coleman last year after seeing an article about his academic success, but he has been contributing to the food bank since setting up his company in 2020,” Arnold FreightWaves said.

Prior to serving the couple at AmeriCorps VISTA Warren said he and King had no experience making ice cream.

That all changed after the couple met Neil McWilliams, owner of Spring Dipper of Mamat Springs, Arkansas, who is also a former president of the National Association of Ice Cream Retailers. Warren said he and King were invited to a 12-hour tutorial on how to make ice cream based on the couple’s initial meeting with McWilliams.

“After we told him [McWilliams] about our plan and what we wanted to use the money for, he invited us back to learn how to make ice cream, ”Warren said. “When we got home, we still needed a few workshops, but yes, Neil McWilliams taught us everything we know about making ice cream for sure, and for a good cause.”