Berry Sweet Treat: Liberty-inspired ice cream flavor debuts this fall

As students return to Liberty University’s campus to begin the fall semester, they have a new treat waiting for them: Sparky’s Berry Blast, a specialty ice cream flavor from Homestead Creamery made exclusively for Liberty.

Beginning next week, the first week of classes, Sparky’s Berry Blast will be available for purchase in Montview Market, located on the first floor of the Montview Student Union. The treat features the local creamery’s award-winning strawberry ice cream with a blueberry swirl. Sodexo, Liberty’s dining services provider, will be hosting a launch event for the new flavor on Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Montview Student Union steps with free samples, music, and an appearance from Liberty’s favorite mascot.

The flavor was created in partnership with Liberty Dining Services and Sodexo. The idea was presented a year ago when representatives met with staff from Homestead Creamery, a dairy processing plant about an hour from campus that focuses on bringing quality, locally sourced products to the community.

“When we were opening up the Montview Market, one of the things that we wanted to do was try and offer a pretty good selection of local products,” Sodexo Resident District Manager Todd Reynolds said. “I knew that (Homestead Creamery) was very, very popular, so we wanted to intentionally offer as much of their products as we possibly could.”

During that meeting, Reynolds asked about the possibility of making a Liberty University flavor, and the idea took off from there.

“For us, it’s just being able to have that farm-to-fork — or spoon — experience and connection onto campus with our milk and ice cream products,” Homestead Creamery Sales Manager Erin Saacke said. “It’s nice to be able to support here within the local community.”

The business is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. All of its products are sourced from local farms using quality ingredients.

Reynolds said the new flavor was chosen primarily through student input and a tasting on campus: “We solicited student feedback through surveys to get an idea of what types of flavors and potentially what types of names that the product could have. Once we did that, we collaborated with Homestead Creamery and shared those results.”

The Liberty University Marketing Department created the carton design.

For now, Sparky’s Berry Blast will only be available on campus, with the potential to eventually expand to Homestead Creamery retail partners.

Sodexo is launching more tasty cool-down offerings this fall with the addition of two new frozen treat machines: a smoodi machine in the Montview Market for made-to-order fruit smoothies and a SOLATO machine at The Market in the School of Business (formerly Simply to Go) with single-serve gelato.