‘Our heads are spinning’: Dallas ice cream shop gets unexpected $50,000 grant on ‘Today’ show
By: By Sarah Blaskovich
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
‘Our heads are spinning’: Dallas ice cream shop gets unexpected $50,000 grant on ‘Today’ show
Howdy Homemade is a shop with a mission: It employs adults with special needs.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/4O4JH2IM6NGFPFEBRA6OK55DDQ.jpg)
Howdy Homemade Ice Cream employee Coleman Jones appeared on the 'Today' show on NBC on Oct. 9. The ice cream shop recently relocated in Dallas to save money on rent. (Cinthia Jaimes)
When a Dallas ice cream shop asked its fans to “save Howdy Homemade” during the coronavirus pandemic, they did.
A GoFundMe with a goal of $75,000 has now collected over $100,000 from fans of the beloved Dallas business, which employs adults who have Down syndrome, autism and other intellectual or developmental disabilities.
On Friday morning, the money kept coming in: Howdy Homemade staffer Coleman Jones appeared on the Today show on NBC and was given an unexpected $50,000 from entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis, who stars in the CNBC show The Profit.
“Our heads are spinning," said Tom Landis, owner of Howdy Homemade.
He’s appreciative of the money, in part because the shop was in jeopardy of closing because of low sales during the pandemic — but also because Landis and his team know ice cream sales naturally go down when the weather gets cooler.
Landis recently purchased a new food truck and moved the business from a pricey location in University Park to a more affordable one five miles north. A supporter named Jaxie Alt volunteered her time to rework Howdy’s books, an effort that led Landis to say in early September, “Howdy probably wouldn’t have made it without Jaxie.”
Landis told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on the Today show that Texas is home to more than 3 million adults with special needs and that it’s his mission to give some of them jobs.
“They want a chance to show everyone that they’ve got a special talent," Landis said on the show. “That’s what Howdy Homemade is. And that’s what Coleman is.”
After announcing the $50,000 grant, Lemonis complimented the company for its mission and told Landis he was going to help Howdy Homemade expand its business. He plans to visit Dallas soon, he told Jones and Landis.
Tags
Who is online
230 visitors
I love stories like this one. IMO it fulfill's Anne Frank's famous line.
This is just wonderful.
Kudos to the ice cream shop owner for employing special needs people. That, of course, is something that is very dear to my heart.
Kudos to Jaxie and all the people that donated to keep the shop going and of course for the $50,000 grant.