This semester, Whitworth has a new club on campus—the Ice Cream Club. President Meg Fairborn wants to bring Whitworth students together using the power of dessert. She invites students to join her club to make and taste from a growing selection of two hundred homemade ice cream flavors and to be in the community with one another.

Fairborn said that it is her vision that students who may be isolated from each other, because of heavy class loads or different majors, could utilize Ice Cream Club as a way to meet each other.

“I’m in the physics department and so I know a whole ton of people in the physics department, but I take so many classes that I don’t really know people from across campus. I thought that starting Ice Cream Club would allow people from different majors who don’t usually know each other or get a chance to meet, to get to know one another. We’re going to make homemade ice cream together and we are sampling homemade ice cream flavors.”

Fairborn discovered her love for making ice cream in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. She started by making batches for her friends during the lockdown. Having found a new passion, she continued to create new ice cream flavors for her family and friends after the lockdown ended. The inspiration to turn her hobby into a club on campus came from her friends.

“I did some research on campus last summer… my other several researchers, they’re like, ‘Oh, did you start an Ice Cream Club?’ And of course, we’re just kind of joking about it. But then we decided that would be a fun thing to do. So it became a club.”

Fairborn’s ice cream flavors go well beyond what may be considered “normal” flavors. She has created new flavors and loves to experiment with unfamiliar flavors.

“My favorite is Vietnamese coffee. It’s sweetened condensed milk in a coffee ice cream. And so it’s a custard-based ice cream that feels really smooth and creamy,” she explained. “The weirdest one I made… I did make that weird mashed potatoes and gravy one… out of a cookbook. And then there’s another one from the same cookbook that’s Kale Creation, which has kale bark in it and you make a white chocolate parmesan swirl and you put it in a walnut flavored ice cream and shortbread crumbles”.

For those who are dairy or egg free, don’t fret, Ice Cream Club is able to accommodate food allergies. The club’s long list of ice cream recipes has many non-dairy and egg-free flavors that everyone can enjoy.

Information about when and where you can find Ice Cream Club events is found on their Instagram @pirate_cone.