Throughout the past five years, Trey Lockwood has worn many hats at The Golden Scoop.
During his Thursday shift at the ice cream shop off 103rd Street near US-69, he moved quickly and diligently from task to task. When he’s not cleaning and making the shop “look like new”, he’s greeting customers and scooping their ice cream — an exchange that often ends in a high-five.
As The Golden Scoop has grown and evolved in Overland Park over the years, “super scoopers” (the shop’s name for its employees) like Lockwood have remained at the center — many of them staying on since the first year, learning as they go.
The building of confidence and leadership of those employees — adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities — is on the minds of The Golden Scoop’s owners, as the nonprofit ice cream and coffee shop marks its fifth birthday this weekend.
The Golden Scoop launched five years ago
Trey Lockwood takes a customer’s order at The Golden Scoop’s 103rd Street location. Photo credit Lucie Krisman.
Sisters Amber Schreiber and Lindsay Krumbholz opened The Golden Scoop’s flagship location at 9540 Nall Ave. in April 2021 — two years after the idea first came to life.
At the time, Schreiber said, her sister had roughly two decades’ experience working with people with disabilities. From their families, Krumbholz heard a common concern.
“They were having conversations about what the future of their loved one would look like, (if they’d) be able to live on their own,” she said.
The sisters discovered that other businesses, such as a coffee shop on the East Coast and an ice cream shop in Texas, had attempted to address this by employing adults with disabilities. Their concept seemed like a way to marry the two, by serving both ice cream and coffee.
They began working on a business plan in 2019 and officially incorporated in January 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life.
The first few weeks at 9540 Nall Ave., as Schreiber recalled, were a blur. She and Krumbholz would often wake up at 3 a.m. and leave the shop at 11 p.m. that night, just making sure the shop was stocked and prepared for the lines that would form throughout the day.
While the pandemic would have typically made getting a business off the ground tricky, Schreiber said Golden Scoop’s status as a nonprofit became an unlikely advantage.
When lots of people were stuck at home and unable to travel, charitable giving surged.
“Fortunately for us, being a nonprofit, fundraising like charitable contributions were up that year,” she said. “So we got to be on the receiving end of some of that, which was really nice.”
Golden Scoop has grown in numerous ways
Amber Schreiber, co-founder of The Golden Scoop. Photo credit Lucie Krisman.
In August 2024, one Golden Scoop became two.
The shop opened a second location at 10460 W. 103rd St., in a former McDonald’s space. The new shop came equipped with a drive-thru window — a first for The Golden Scoop team, who got some help learning how to tackle on-the-go coffee orders from a local Chick-fil-A franchise.
In addition to a second brick-and-mortar store, the nonprofit grew its presence in Johnson County when its ice cream hit the shelves at a Price Chopper grocery store in Overland Park.
The Golden Scoop also now offers catering, an on-the-go element that Schreiber said has taught many super scoopers about interacting with the community in new ways — in addition to what they learn behind the shop’s counter.
“Our wholesale and catering line of business has really blown up,” she said. “We’re training them on new things, and they’re able to get out into the community more and work on their social skills.”
It’s opportunities like that, she said, that are at the center of The Golden Scoop’s mission of teaching and empowering its employees.
“We are just one big classroom, you know, trying different things,” Schreiber said. “In business in general, it can be very cutthroat. There’s not a lot of grace provided. But here, I think (having grace) is what allows us to stand out and helps us retain our employees.”
The Golden Scoop’s owners have learned a lot during the past five years too. For example, Schreiber said, the nonprofit became aware of an unexpected challenge when employees received their first paychecks.
Because many of the employees receive Social Security disability benefits, they can be penalized if they earn more than $1,500 a month or have more than $2,000 in their bank account at the end of the month. This presented a tough situation: how could employees keep their benefits without having to take a significant pay cut?
To address that issue, Golden Scoop plans to utilize a new solution: ABLE accounts, which are specialized accounts that allow people with disabilities to save more money without compromising benefit eligibility.
This year, the nonprofit plans to start regular employer contributions into those accounts.
Employees can also choose payroll deductions that route part of their paycheck into ABLE accounts and part into their regular checking accounts.
“We didn’t want anybody to lose their benefits, but at the same time, we’re giving them purpose, we’re giving them meaningful, paid employment,” Schreiber said. “They can work more, and they can earn more.”
Golden Scoop will celebrate its birthday this weekend
A scoop of birthday cake ice cream from The Golden Scoop. Photo credit Lucie Krisman.
From noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, the ice cream shop will celebrate the fifth anniversary with a birthday event at the 103rd Street location.
The “Birthday Party SCOOPtacular” event will include festivities like live music, face painting, balloon art and yard games.
On Sunday, the nonprofit will also have a founders’ brunch from 11 a.m. to noon to recognize people who have supported the shop from the start.
Some super scoopers have celebrated milestones of their own during their time at The Golden Scoop, moving up the ranks into leadership positions.
That’s something that Schreiber said multiple employees have expressed interest in.
Though The Golden Scoop ultimately aims to be a stepping stone in an employee’s career, she said, some super scoopers have found it just as fulfilling to stay and progress internally, becoming managers and mentors.
“It’s given them that confidence — we’ve been able to unlock potential that they never realized before, or that they were told maybe that they (didn’t have),” she said. “Hopefully our customers, our supporters, see that development and that progression too, and they see that they are capable.”
Lockwood is one of those employees. After five years, he’s now had the opportunity to mentor new employees and show them the ropes.
Whatever the next five years hold for The Golden Scoop, he said, he hopes they bring “something special.”
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