College & Cook Magazine, Spring 2012

Though beloved throughout the United States & abroad, Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream purveyor known for wacky flavors & even funkier names, holds a special place in the University of Vermont’s heart. Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield opened their first scoop shop in 1978 in downtown Burlington, the state capital & home to UVM. On the first anniversary of their founding, the duo offered free cones, & that tradition continues today. At UVM, this tradition is a very big deal.

As the only university with an on-site Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop inside of our student center & a campus culture that aligns with Ben & Jerry’s sustainable business practices, commitment to social justice, & general hippie flair, Phish Food, Chocolate Therapy, & Late Night Snack are well-loved here. This is never a truer fact than on Free Cone Day. A variable date in April, students begin counting down to Free Cone Day weeks in advance. We craft game plans (the only limit to cone consumption is presumably heft of class schedule) & flavor strategies (Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz counts as breakfast, right?).

Even before the scoop shop opens at noon, the line stretches outside of the Davis Center & around the block, & doesn’t dwindle until most students have left campus around 6 p.m. But the line is notoriously quick, with student workers churning out thousands of cones in an eight-hour stretch. This year’s top cone cruncher managed to enjoy 16 cones, which in retrospect makes my stomachchurning four seem almost amateur. We in Vermont take both our hometown heroes & our ice cream very seriously.