Chocolate Shoppe partnering with TEENworks and is donating treats for Thanksgiving Baskets

By Meghan Allynn Johnson, GCC community partnerships and events manager

Every year Chocolate Shoppe, a great partner of Goodman Community Center, holds a Create-a-Flavor contest to pick a new recipe for its delicious rotation of frozen treats. In past years, winning ice cream flavor titles included This $%&# Just Got Serious, a mix of rich sea salt fudge and salted cashews, and Exhausted Parent, which pairs bourbon-spiked espresso ice cream with chocolate chunks.

In 2024, it received over 3,000 submissions for flavor ideas. Apple Cider Donut was the winning flavor for 2025 single-batch production. Chocolate Shoppe is also trying something new — this flavor will be created in partnership with GCC’s very own TEENworks program!

If you’re not yet familiar with TEENworks, then you are in for a treat. Through this program, local high schoolers from across the city are paid to learn hands-on job skills that prepare them for careers in a variety of industries. They also earn an hourly wage for training — learning skills like resumé writing and interviewing.

This exciting collaboration between TEENworks and Chocolate Shoppe gives teens the opportunity to practice their skills in a professional setting while they bring what is sure to be a future favorite, Apple Cider Donut, to life. Under the supervision of TEENworks staff and Chocolate Shoppe employees, teens will learn how to source the right ingredients, maintain food and kitchen safety and gain extensive knowledge in arguably the best part — research and development. They’ll engineer and taste-test the ice cream for the best texture and flavor.

As if this cooperative effort couldn’t get any better, Chocolate Shoppe will also donate $1 for every carton of Apple Cider Donut that’s sold to support Goodman’s TEENworks program! Its generous support gives back to the community and demonstrates to teens that they have a community partner who supports their personal and professional growth. Chocolate Shoppe’s core values are integrity, passion, community, joy and quality, and because it demonstrates these values, they’re passed along to this wonderful city we all call home. The new flavor will debut in the summer of 2025.

Ice cream for Goodman Community Center’s Thanksgiving Baskets

Shortly, you’ll find a brightly colored Chocolate Shoppe truck parked in GCC’s Ironworks lot during for the annual Thanksgiving Basket Drive. The company, founded in 1962, will be donating 4,000 pints of ice cream to go with each Thanksgiving Basket. What a wonderful treat for the holiday.