ComeUnity Ice started at the beginning of the summer and has given a refreshing opportunity for Red Hook youth to refresh the community.
They have employed five Red Hook youth, three girls and two boys, over the summer. The girls were the firsts to join the mobile ice cream and ices company and then the boys joined after.
They had their ices and ice cream from their cart available at the Family Day event on August 27 at Coffey Park. They were in the park for about four hours and were taking tips for anyone who wanted to give.
ComeUnity Ice, which was started by Khary Bekka, found its employees through reaching out via Instagram and it was also through word of mouth in the projects.
When they serve free events like Family Day, with generous people tipping, the youth will have $30 or $40 at the end of the session cooping the refreshing treats.
At Family Day in Coffey Park, there was a big bounce house with a hoop, Bumble Bees R Us had a table, NYC Ferry had a table with information, Red Hook Art Project where people could do art, the FDNY had a fire truck and Red Hook Neighborhood STAT had information for people. There was also a lot of food being cooked.
If they are selling on their own at locations throughout Red Hook, they will get $100 for a session scooping. If there are two scoopers, they will split the profit and get $50. They will often work in five hour sessions and trade off and have the next youth takeover.
ComeUnity has blue and pink shirts and they say ComeUnity on the front and We Got the Scoop on the back. The two youth who were working at this event were both 14.
Leanna Mantack found out about the opportunity to join ComeUnity through a friend. She has sold the ices and ice cream in Prospect Park and all over Red Hook, which has included Bush Clinton Park and next to the pool.
She enjoyed the experience she had interacting with the community.
“I got a great opportunity to learn how to work with people and I liked getting to meet new people,”
Mantack said. “I would like to do it again next summer.”
They started with one cart at the beginning of the summer and it was purchased for $3,500. They ordered this cart from Turkey Hill.
The ices that ComeUnity Ice has used have been from Ices Queen, which is a wholesaler on Utica Avenue. They employ the youth as well. They go and buy gallons at a time from them.
They get their ice cream from Jetro on Hamilton Avenue. They are a wholesale distributor for restaurants. He thanked the Scarsdale Friends Meeting for being supportive in this effort and helping purchase half of the first cart.
“We had the idea that we were going to go out and give people opportunities to serve and sell affordable ices,” Bekka said. “The ice cream truck was giving an ice cream for $4 and a waffle cone for $7. We sold our cones for $1, and we had waffle cones for $2.”
Someone else who was involved from the beginning was Umma Ketter. He helped with the building and constructing of the carts and setting up the pay schedules. He was in the community and wanted to help the new business.
The first event that ComeUnity Ice went to was the Pride Day Parade on 5th Avenue on June 11. This was when they got the most business.
At first people had to break into us and then after that we made some good money there,” Bekka said. “We were right next to Save on 5th on 8th Street.”
They also went to Brooklyn Bridge Park and Prospect Park during the summer as well as selling in Coffey Park and around Red Hook with RHI being involved.
They ended up getting a spot to have their cart and sell at 371 Van Brunt Street at The Community Store. This was where they were going to keep the freezers for the business.
When they had this location, the kids would set up and start selling at about 5:00. They were not able to sell at this location after a while so they returned to selling at parks and other places around the neighborhood.
They started building more carts and they got up to a total of four. This was so that they could increase the amount of places that they could sell, but some of the new carts were not ideal since they were heavy.
ComeUnity Ice has received a lot of support from the community for this grassroots business. The local stores allowed them to keep the ices in their freezers and the TA’s allowed them to keep stuff with them and build in their space.
He came up with the name ComeUnity Ice since he wanted something catchy that “would revive the spirit of the community that had been lost.” The C and the U are capitalized since it symbolizes seeing your neighbor.
“The support that we got was amazing,” Bekka said. “It created hope and I think that is most important. It gives an option for employment and that is most important.”
The kids have gotten a lot out of the experience and their mothers have told him it has lightened their burden by putting money in their kids pockets.
This money has allowed the youths to pay for their eyelashes or to get their hair braided or to get sneakers. During a three or four day span, they could make $200.
Jayla found out since her aunt’s boyfriend told her parents and they thought this would be a good opportunity for her. She has liked having the support from people she knew.
“I have enjoyed helping my community, seeing people I know buy from and support me and just having a good laugh with people,” the 14-year-old said.
When she has sold over the summer she has gone on Van Brunt Street and right outside of the car race at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
If there is an event scheduled for back-to-back days where they will need the cart they will keep the cart at RHI or at the Miccio Center. He also has the option of keeping it in his car or a garage.
He wants the business to grow going into the future and have the kids more involved and have them learn more about the business end. They will be pivoting to some different events after the summer ends including one at RHI and the Justice Center.
“We can get creative with weddings, gender reveals, baby showers, Sweet 16s and sporting events,” Bekka said. “In the winter, we will get creative to keep the kids involved with some type of employment.”
His vision for next summer is to be supported with more donations and get even more of the youth involved. He would like to have more storage space so they can have four carts in the community.
Bekka said the business has taken off more than he thought it would. He then started with one kid who was disabled who was very interested in joining and then it was great to have an opportunity to hire more youth.
“I was experimenting to see how we would employ them and at the same time stay profitable,” Bekka said. “We were concerned with making sure the neighbors were right and giving them an opportunity.”
