Math and a Trip to the Ben & Jerry’s Factory Waterbury, VT By: Kendall Robertson Tickets • To tour the Factory, tickets cost $4 each. In my group, there were 2 of us. So, we spent a reasonable $8. • There was a larger group of 10 people on the tour with us. They paid $40 for their group’s tickets. (OA) At the Gift Shop • While we were waiting for the tour to start, we browsed at the gift shop. Most of the t-shirts ranged from $22$24. I only had a $20 bill in my wallet, so a t-shirt was not in the cards for me. • Wouldn’t this ice cream bowl set ($20) be the perfect gift for the ice cream connoisseur in your life? (MD) Time • During this time of year, the Factory is open everyday from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. That’s 8 hours of operation per day. • At the Factory, tours start every hour on the hour. • We arrived at 10:45 a.m. and our tour started at 11:00 a.m. • It lasted 30 minutes, so promptly at 11:30, we were ready to start eating ice cream. (MD) Free Pints • After talking with our tour guide, I learned that every employee gets 3 free pints of ice cream per shift worked. That means if you were an employee and worked 5 shifts per week (Monday-Friday, let’s say), you would earn 15 pints of free ice cream… in addition to your hourly pay. • …Not bad for a week’s worth of work! (OA) Ben & Jerry’s Fun Facts • In the 1970s, Ben & Jerry took a class together on ice cream making from Penn State University’s Creamery. The cost of the class was $5. The 2 of them split the cost of the class, meaning each paid $2.50 to learn all about the art of making ice cream (a worthwhile investment, in my opinion). (OA) • In 1983, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was used to make the world’s largest ice cream sundae in St. Albans. It weighed 27,102 pounds. That’s 12,293 kilograms. (MD) Fun Facts, continued • On Earth Day in 2005, Ben & Jerry’s took part in a political protest due to a proposed vote in the U.S. Senate to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. They created the largest ever Baked Alaska, which weighed 900 pounds, or 410 kilograms. (MD) • It was placed in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. The Vermonster • While at the Factory, I learned about the famous Vermonster, a large ice cream sundae served in a huge bucket. • It includes: – – – – – – – – 20 scoops of ice cream 4 bananas 4 ladles of hot fudge 3 chocolate chip cookies 1 chocolate fudge brownie 10 scoops of walnuts (hope you like walnuts!) 2 scoops each of 4 toppings of your choice (2 x 4 = 8 scoops) Whipped cream …That’s 51 total components in 1 dessert! (OA) The Vermonster in all its glory Counting Calories? • Are you curious about how many calories are in the Vermonster? • It contains 14,000 calories (and 500 grams of fat). • It is generally recommended that we consume approximately 2,000 calories per day, so a Vermonster includes a week’s worth of calories for one person. (OA, NBT) The Pint • This factory produces 120,000 pints of ice cream per day of operation. • But what exactly is a pint? • “A unit of liquid or dry capacity equal to ½ quart.”1 • There are 16 fluid ounces in a pint. • There are 2 cups in a pint. • In case you were wondering, a gallon of ice cream is equal to 8 pints of ice cream. 1Asknumbers.com (MD) A Helpful Volume Visual Counting the 13 steps in making B&J’s ice cream: 1 Ingredients bought from farmers 2 Ingredients brought to factory 3 The blend tank 4 Pasteurized and homogenized 5 The flavor vats 6 The freezer 7 The chunk feeder 8 The contherm and variegator 9 The automatic filler 10 The spiral hardener 11 The bundler 12 Quality assurance 13 Transported to vendors (CC) Shapes at the Factory • After the tour, we went to the Scoop Shop. • I ordered my Half Baked ice cream in a cone, while my friend ordered his favorite, Cherry Garcia, in a cup. (G) Combinations • The menu at the Scoop Shop was full of choices. • I counted 39 ice cream flavors on the board (CC), • 13 different types of cones (depending on your preference for size, sprinkles vs. no sprinkles, chocolate dipped or not, cake vs. sugar cone, etc.), • And 2 different cup sizes (depending on how many scoops you want). • That makes for A LOT of different flavor combination possibilities. (SP) Resources • • • • • Benjerry.com Google.com/images Asknumbers.com Some photos by Kendall Robertson Helpful Factory employees