Gifford’s Bangor Stand Will Be The First To Open For This Season…Soon!

On the heels of last month's announcement that production of Gifford's homemade icecream has resumed at the newly repaired plant in Skowhegan, some more good news for local ice cream lovers: Gifford's Bangor ice cream stand will open for this season on March 15th!

It says so right on their sign!

But I double-checked, just to make sure.

Opening at noon that day, the local managers say they expect a sizeable crowd, especially if the sun is shining.

Rhonda Shumaker is in her 35th year with the company and says that it could be freezing, or even snowing outside, but if the sun is out, the crowd will gather because they've missed the ice cream so much.

While production has resumed at the plant, Shumaker says the number of Gifford's flavors will be limited, until they're completely back up to capacity.

We're told they will be selling pre-packaged pints at the stand this year, and they're even rolling out a new pint line with some new flavors.

Lauren Healy, Marketing Director for Gifford's says

"The production plan currently prioritizes fan-favorite flavors that the co-packer partners were not able to make in 2023 like Toasted Coconut and Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt."

According to JC Gifford, COO of Gifford’s Ice Cream, those specialty flavors were not able to be duplicated when the company looked to other ice cream producers to help them fill the product gap when their plant was down.

“We can only make certain flavors here because the process we use to make some of our bases and ripples can’t be duplicated elsewhere...This is the first step in our journey to get these long-awaited flavors back into the hands of our customers. We will continue to update our retailers as we ramp up production and notify customers of flavor availability through our social media channels, company newsletter, and in person at our family-owned stands” noted Gifford."

Gifford's Ice Cream stand on Broadway in Bangor will be open from 12 PM to 8:30 PM.

Other Gifford's stands across the state will stagger their opening dates throughout the next month or so.