06/15/2023
This job will always be in my top 5 of everything I have ever worked on! Such a pleasure to work for! FYI rib sticking food!
I smiled with my lips and heart today when I read a post from The Dairy Isle – a longtime walk-up eatery in Greenfield – on Facebook.
“We are absolutely astounded by the LOVE our community provides,” its words read. “As of today we now have an Ice Cream Fund. One of our generous customers wants to make sure that all of our community children get to have ice cream cones whenever they want and has donated a significant amount of credit to insure that no one goes without.
“If you want to treat your child and cannot afford to do so, just ask the cashier to ring you up an ice cream cone ‘on the house.’”
I was so struck by innovative community spirit that I called Clista Jarrett, the stop’s owner, to learn more about how this came about.
She told me that it tied back to a question a local father posted in a Dade County Facebook group. Recently single, he asked for ways to help his child have fun, and meet new friends.
“He said, ‘Hey, you know, I'm a single father and I've got a six-year-old. Is anybody willing to hang out with us? Maybe go to the lake or something?’” recounts Jarrett. “‘She's getting tired of looking at me. And I'm running out of ideas. So can I get some help?’”
Jarrett chimed into the conversation, and suggested he bring his daughter by The Dairy Isle on a Sunday afternoon. The outdoor cafe has playground equipment, Jarrett says, and with families often around, it might be a good way to connect with others.
The suggestion was successful in an unexpected way: It prompted the anonymous community member to stop by The Dairy Isle today with a donation to start the fund.
“So she came here today and handed me $100 and said, ‘If anybody needs ice cream, you let them have ice cream. And if you run out of money, call me,’” says Jarrett.
That spirit is sweet today, but it’s also reflected in The Dairy Isle’s existence. Located along U.S. 160 in the Dade County seat, it has been a landmark for decades, save a few years ago when age and health of former owners forced its closure.
That reality turned out to be temporary when Jarrett purchased the property at auction with the express intent of reopening the business, keeping its name and building its legacy.
“A little-known fact about The Dairy Isle is that we’re actually a mentorship program. We operate by mentoring youth in our town,” says Jarrett. “We practice three things here: We practice inclusivity, where we make sure that everybody knows that they’re safe and welcome; we practice education; and we teach work ethic.
“My main purpose for doing this is I wanted to give back to a community that gave me a lot when I was a kid.”
Jarrett isn’t from Greenfield, but spent a great deal of time in the small community during summers with family when she was growing up. A union stagehand who has traveled the world with Broadway shows, her plan was to reopen the shop seasonally, which Missouri Preservation says is one of two locations of the Dairy Isle ice cream stand chain still operating in Missouri. What happened was far more than she expected.
“It has kind of exploded into more than I had ever thought it would be,” she says. “What I found was that there was a need for hometown love. We needed a place where people can come and sit and talk and hang out, and we needed a place where our teenagers can have a job.
“Over the course of the last five years, I've figured out – not being from a small town – that there are things that are associated with your last name. Fortunately, I have one of those last names that's on the higher end so I don't have to deal with those things.
"But there were a lot of kids who were like, ‘I wasn't sure if you would hire me because of who my dad is.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t give a crap who your dad is; I give a crap about who you are.’”
Since she reopened the ice cream stop, Jarrett shares that students who have come through have gone on to college and have excelled academically. They’ve also had work and life experiences to which they might otherwise not have had exposure.
And today, the start of the Ice Cream Fund is another way to show that care.
“For someone to give that much money to make sure that I'm able to send the love out the window that I'm trying to send out the window means everything in the world to me.”
FYI, Good News Network
