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It’s pretty chilly out there and January is the month when we’re all trying to be good ?  Take away ice cream won’t be at the top of the list when it comes to having a treat, so we’ll be closing the shop from Thursday 31st December 2020. If you think you might need a cheeky Hooray’s before we reopen, make sure you pop in a grab a take home tub to get you through the winter.

While we’re closed, we’ll be busy in the Hooray’s kitchen creating lots of new and exciting flavours  for you to enjoy, and getting our new range, The Celebration Range, ready for the big launch !! Watch this space for more details soon.

A massive THANK YOU to our team and to all our regular Hooravers for your support this year.  Wishing you all a Happy Hooray’s New Year.

Looking forward to seeing you, at some point, in 2021.

Love

Sara and Sasha

xx

In last weeks tropical heat, we headed over to Warwick Hospital to give out more of our donated scoops to NHS workers.

On arrival there was already a socially distanced queue eagerly waiting.  The word had spread quickly through the hospital and the remained constant all day.

The hospital staff from nurses to administrators, security to surgeons and doctors to grounds staff all enjoyed a free scoop donated by our supporters.

Seven hours later we had handed out 967 scoops.  HOORAY!  It was a privilege to be able to make so many smile, seeing them enjoying a well deserved treat. Many of the staff commenting on what a lovely idea, how much they appreciated the gesture and sending thanks back to all who contributed.

“HELP HOORAY’S – SAY THANK YOU – MAKE SOMEONE SMILE” is our crowd funding project which will be going live on Crowdfunder website this week on Friday 15th May, using the free crowd funder pay it forward scheme.

We thought it would be great to say THANK YOU to NHS and CARE HOME KEY WORKERS, the only way we know how; of course, that’s with ice cream ?
Having seen the smiles (from a distance) that a Hooray’s delivery brings to those who are currently isolating, we thought giving an ice cream would be a lovely way to say thank you to all the NHS and CARE HOME KEY WORKERS in the area and those who visit when the lock down is over.
This will give our supporters the opportunity to say THANK YOU to an NHS and CARE HOME KEY WORKER by treating them to a scoop of handmade gelato ice cream, and we’ll make it extra special with a topping of their choice.
We will keep a tally in store of all the donated scoops. To claim their scoop any NHS or CARE HOME KEY WORKER will be able to come in and show us their employment ID card and we’ll serve them a delicious scoop of their favourite flavour with a topping of their choice, and of course say a big THANK YOU to them for all their dedication and selflessness during the lockdown.
If we get enough scoops donated, we’ll arrange a visit to one of the local hospitals or care homes and give out scoops to all the employees from Hennie our vintage VW ice cream van.
Supporters will be able to donate a cone or tub of delicious Hooray’s ice cream for just £3.00 or a sharing tub for £10 .
We’ll also have other special rewards for those who support our crowd funding appeal.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Covid-19 forced us to close our doors on the 21st March. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. Nearly 80% of our sales happen over the spring and summer, which help us survive the winter months, consequently we were at the end of our savings and were all ready to launch in to another busy high season, which so far hasn’t happened. We still have rent and bills to pay and every day of missing our high season is making it more and more difficult to see how we’ll survive.
We had no choice but to put all 15 of our staff on to the government furlough scheme, knowing that our staff are being paid and can stay safe at home is a huge relief.
We’re not eligible for the small business grant from Government because our rateable value is more than the £51k cut off point.
As well as delivering groceries and family size tubs of ice cream and DIY Sundae Making Kits from the hastily established Hooray’s pantry, we have been trying to make a plan for the survival of our business.

Did you know that you can pop in and enjoy one of our ice creams at Stratford Garden Centre in Clifford Chambers?  There’s a freezer stocked with 14 of our most popular flavours, it’s in their Lime Tree Café.  So whether it’s a scoop in a cup or a cone, a yummy waffle or a dish of gelato for pudding, if you don’t feel up to facing the traffic and parking hassle in town, call into the Garden Centre to get your Hooray’s favourite.

We’d love to get Hooray’s freezers into other outlets in and around town, if you think you know of the perfect shop where you’d pop in to buy some of our ice creams, please let us and the shop keeper know and maybe we’ll be able to get together. Don’t forget it doesn’t only have to be a cup or a cone we also sell big take home tubs,  500ml, 750ml or 1 litre for the whole family to share, and the best thing is that you’re not limited to just one flavour in a tub, we’re happy to put in whatever combo suits you and your family or friends.

We’re not just about Ice cream and sweet treats at Hooray’s, apparently not everyone knows this.

Over the past couple of years we’ve developed a great little savoury menu to complement our award winning gelato’s.

Soup, paninis, bagels, sandwiches and Mac & Cheese, We’ve taken suggestions from our staff and our regulars to create a varied and popular menu.

A great idea from one of our regular mums was the kids meal deal for the under 5’s, a mini sandwich, carrot ribbons, fruit salad, and a little carton of juice, followed by a mini scoop of ice cream.  It’s just perfect for the kids who are busy having fun playing in the kids corner.

Our Homemade Mac & Cheese has proved incredibly popular since introducing it to our menu earlier in 2019.  We make it fresh, and you can add extra cheese for a “cheezy mac”, bacon for a “porkie mac”, or pesto and sundried tomatoes for a “pestomania mac”.

Everything on our savoury menu is made to order, so just like our waffles and crepes you can choose one of our options from the menu or you can swop and change and create your own.

Let us know if you have any bright ideas of food you’d like to see on our menu, bearing in mind that we are a café, not a gourmet restaurant ?

We’ve teamed up with Emma & Pete who own North Cotswold Dairy in Long Compton.  All the milk we use to produce our ice cream is now sourced locally, which means the freshest milk. The Cotswold Dairy herd are award winning and with names like Mabel, MadCap, GoodLuck, Cameo, Nell and Edna what’s not to love. The milk is delivered in reusable churns which enormously reduces our recycled waste plastics.

We’ve been making a conscious effort to reduce our carbon footprint, as we feel it’s everyone’s responsibility to do their bit to reduce emissions.

Compostable take away coffee cups should now be a given for all coffee shops.  We recycle plastic ice cream spoons. Having had lots of debates as to which is better, using wooden ice cream spoons(which even if they are made with sustainable trees, use a valuable resource) or plastic spoons which can be washed, sanitised and used again.  It’s one of those 6 of one and half a dozen of the other kinda discussions.  We’d be interested to hear your views.

The big straw debacle continues, everyone hated seeing the horrific results of non biodegradable straws in our oceans on the Blue Planet. So, we’ve decided to generally discourage the use of straws, and the ones we stock are 100% compositable.  A lovely lady from A Rubbish Friends Initiative called in to the shop and told us about “Press Pause on Plastic Straws” which we support wholeheartedly. We sold reusable metal straws last year, but they didn’t fly off the shelf, let us know if you think it’s something you’d be interested in buying if we stocked them again?

We are super excited to announce that Hooray’s artesian gelato and sorbets is all set to be available at new venues in 2018!!