A Hampstead 22-year-old has been churning out homemade ice cream and donating the profits to charity to help out through the pandemic.
At the beginning of April, during the worst of the coronavirus, Bella felt compelled to support her community and do her bit, so she started making and delivering ice cream around Hampstead and Highgate.
The charity venture has seen the profits of Bella’s Ice Cream split between Samaritans and The Black Curriculum.
Bella told the Ham&High: “My mum works in the Royal Free and so I was hearing from her how desperate the situation was for some, but I felt lost as to how I could help.
“When I made my first batch, my family and I were joking about how this could be a global business but then it dawned on me that this could be the way that I could help – to provide happiness, through ice cream, and services, through fundraising, to those who needed it.”
With her mind made up, Bella put the wheels in motion. The trainee teacher sourced tubs, designed stickers, created a website and invented flavours such as blueberry basil, earl grey and lemon meringue.
Soon enough the word spread, and on some days Bella delivered as many as 20 tubs, either on foot or by car, with part of the challenge making sure the ice cream didn’t melt.
“I still have a lot of ice cream addicts badgering me with reorders,” Bella said.
Initially, the 22-year-old donated all of her profits to Samaritans, but then, following the Black Lives Matter protests, she changed tack.
Bella said: “As the pandemic went on, I had a further realisation that I would not be able to carry out a project like this without the privilege of my own financial security and customers or a neighbourhood with the means to support my idea.
“This coincided with the death of George Floyd, the significant emergence of the Black Lives Matter protests, both on and offline, and the personal confrontation with my lack of Black history knowledge or understanding of today’s systemic injustices.
“That’s why my intention to donate 100% of the money to the Samaritans soon changed to splitting the funds raised between the Samaritans and The Black Curriculum.”
Bella added: “Most of all, it has been fun, funny and an exciting project that has seen me through lockdown and beyond.”
More than £1,200 has been raised for charity from Bella’s Ice Cream.
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