Ice cream made by Iowa State’s Dairy Science Club is sold from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside of Lush Auditorium in Kildee Hall every Wednesday.

The club concocts ingredients to make a variety of flavors and sells each cup of ice cream for $2.

While Iowa State has its own dairy farm south of Central Campus, the Dairy Science Club does not use the milk from Iowa State’s dairy farm to make its ice cream.

The members of the Dairy Science Club take turns managing the ice cream sales each Wednesday. Isabella Portner, junior in dairy science, and Brynnen Gardner, junior in animal science, are two members of the club.

“All of the club members are able to come and help mix ice cream in the meat lab — we have a room down there,” Portner said. “We get together one day a week and mix ice cream all day. We get to decide different things like the flavors.”

The flavors of ice cream sold vary from week to week. Customers have the chance to try vanilla, triple chocolate, caramel apple, pumpkin spice, Reese’s and Oreo flavors, Portner said. 

Other flavors the club sells include Heath caramel, Butterfinger, Snickers, strawberry, Twix and more.

Gardner said the club also makes seasonal flavors when resources are available, such as a flavor focused on the Girl Scout cookie, Thin Mints.

Rosa Rarick, sophomore in dairy science, is also a member of the Dairy Science Club and said she enjoys being a part of selling ice cream.

“It’s fun,” Rarick said. “It’s just a really cool club event how we all work together as a club to make it, and we sell it on campus and all the money goes back into our club events.”

Portner said revenue varies by season. Ice cream sales have been declining recently, because weather gets colder, people don’t seem to want ice cream as much, she said. 

To combat the reduction of sales, Gardner promotes the benefits that ice cream has.

“[When] people come and buy ice cream, they’re still getting the nine essential nutrients that would be in a glass of milk,” Gardner said. “But it’s more enjoyable.”

Some of the club members have experience with the dairy industry, but a background in dairy is not a requirement of the club.

“I’ve been a part of the Dairy Science Club since freshman year,” Portner said. “I come from a dairy farm in Minnesota where we have 270 brown swiss cows. I’m really interested in the dairy industry and want to go back to it someday.”

Some club members, like Gardner, have different agricultural experiences. Gardner said she grew up on a beef cattle operation in Michigan and has been more involved with the Michigan dairy industry since coming to college.