Roger Riley returns to Iowa State Fair to sample Thelma’s Ice Cream Sandwiches

Desmond Milligan · August 14

DES MOINES, Iowa — The idea for Thelma’s Ice Cream Sandwiches came not from an idea to market ice cream nationwide at Costco, but rather a way to honor Grandma Thelma and her Snickerdoodle cookies.

The family started delivering cookies alone, using Grandma Thelma’s Snickerdoodle cookie recipe. Then the idea came to add ice cream.

“The very first year we sold 50 of them wrapped, in Saran wrap and Scotch tape at the Des Moines Farmers Market,” said Lana Lewis of Monroe, who started Thelma’s Ice Cream with her son, Dereck. “My son said, ‘I think we were on something here,’ so long story short, now we’re 13 years later across the nation.”

The family had some help with the ice cream in their hometown of Monroe.

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“We have a good friend that owns an ice cream store in Monroe, Jersey Freese, and I know you’re all familiar with Jersey,” said Lana. “That’s where Grandma was from, and we started putting ice cream in the sandwiches.”

Selling locally was going well, so the company decided to swing for the fence and do marketing on a bigger scale through Costco. It took five years for Dereck to get through all the hoops to land the Costco deal.

“Today would be Grandma Thelma’s 120th birthday,” said Lewis. “She lived until she was 108, so she passed away 12 years ago, and today we’re celebrating our 120th birthday and that’s why we have the grandkids here, these will be her grandkids, Aimee, Elaine, and Jeff.”

The family is experimenting with some new flavors now in their fourth year of selling at the Iowa State Fair. Some of the flavors could be seen on your local store shelves.

For more on Thelma’s Ice Cream Sandwich, click here.