A happy tune drifts down the street as an ice cream truck passes through the neighborhood, on the way to its next stop at a local park. Most people take ice cream trucks for granted, never stopping to think about who runs them or how they came to be. 

Junior Kate Schneeberger and her family, however, have recently joined the ranks of ice cream truck owners with their new business Ice Cream Social KC, learning along the way all about the ups and downs of the ice cream business.

“My stepdad has a lot of side projects he likes to do,” Schneeberger said. “And he came up with the idea in passing. He was just like, ‘Hey, what if we bought an ice cream truck?’”

At first, Schneeberger and her siblings didn’t think he was serious. It seemed impossible that you could just go out and buy an ice cream truck.

But the family was still lacking the very thing they needed to get the business started: an ice cream truck. Schneeberger worried the family would have to sell ice cream out of a sketchy van, but her stepfather was able to find the perfect truck.

“He finds this vintage ice cream truck from 1973. It’s super old, but it’s really cute,” Schneeberger said. “It’s not a sketchy van. It’s like an actual ice cream truck.”

Now the family had everything they needed to start their business and it was time to start selling some ice cream.

“Right now we are mainly going to parks and just parking in the parking lot and having people come up and order ice cream,” Schneeberger said. “That’s our main way of income.”

However, they haven’t been without their challenges.

“A big challenge is that it’s so old and it will break down so easily,” Schneeberger said. “It breaks down a lot and we have to do a lot to it, maintenance wise.”

Schneeberger’s brother, who does the majority of the driving and maintenance on the truck, tends to stick to driving and fixing the vehicle while Schneeberger takes orders and serves ice cream.

“It’s all of my siblings running it. So my brother Matthew and my sister Sumner are in college,” Schneeberger said. “Me and my brother Witt, who is a sophomore, are running it right now.”

As of right now, Ice Cream Social KC mainly works in public parks around Johnson County and Leawood, but they hope to book events in the future.

“We want to get more events booked. We just go around town right now, but we want more events,” Schneeberger said. “We can do grad parties, birthday parties, anything really event-wise.”

As a true family-owned ice cream truck business, Ice Cream Social KC is surprisingly unique. Many of the ice cream trucks around town are rented, meaning the people driving them could be dangerous or unknown.

“I think our selling point is the fact that we’re not a random old man in a sketchy van with tinted windows selling you ice cream,” Schneeberger said. “We’re very normal.”

Schneeberger says many of the people she’s talked to are grateful to Ice Cream Social KC for providing another option for ice cream trucks.

“I guess we’re a safer option for ice cream,” Schneeberger said. “And if people want to have birthday parties with an ice cream truck, we can be that safer option.”