an end of year letter from molly moon

Shalom and aloha, ice cream lovers!

Woah! What a year this has been.

As the end of the year comes nearer and I’m in major retrospection & excitement for the new year mode—and in light of an incredible 2018—I wanted to offer you a few updates and thoughts from the desk of an ice cream obsessed mama, before we ring in the new…

In my personal life… our second daughter, Odessa Moon, landed on the scene in January and with her arrival came a flood of emotions and activity. I felt the privilege and fortune to take 3 months of paid family leave (something I championed in Olympia in 2017 and which will now be a benefit for EVERY Washingtonian in 2020). I sharpened my multi-tasking skills with my beloved Willow breast pump along every step of the way (check it out, ladies!)—and our oldest daughter, February Moon (a new kindergartener!), kept me on my toes at all times. My husband Zack and I discovered the “day date” including a 7th anniversary lunch date with oysters and rosé. Mostly, I have marveled at my little family of four and felt a great deal of gratitude for their health and the love their presence generates for me and the world around them.

At molly moon’s… we celebrated our 10 year anniversary in May! I can’t believe this little company I started is 10 years old, with 7 shops and such a wonderful mooncrew to call my work family. When I opened Wallingford, I set out to start a small business that had REALLY progressive benefits and ingredient sourcing practices and did all the things I believed in—and PROVE that a business could do those things and still make a profit—and it’s worked!! I’m still really in awe many days of the week! The experiment is working—all because you wonderful ice cream eaters keep supporting us. And it just keeps getting better: in 2018 we brought our single-serve cups, “minimoons,” to every PCC around the Puget Sound, to vending machines at the KEXP gathering space and the flagship Nordstrom, and to a few ferry boats headed to Bainbridge & Whidbey islands.

This year, we made some super fan customers very happy by making our Yeti flavor an always flavor. We also launched 48 seasonal flavors (as usual) along with several collaboration flavors with community and farm partners, including a project with Seattle Public Schools where students designed our best-selling sundae EVER (and got to take the profits back to their high school culinary programs!). We are proud to report we gave away $70,000 to organizations we care about along with 875 gallons of free ice cream.

The real mission of molly moon’s is to make the world better, one scoop at a time. It’s been a tough year for me wondering if we’ve done enough—or if anyone can do enough in these troubled times. At the very same times that I felt intense joy with the growth of our nuclear family and the happiness we’ve spread as a company, I have felt rocked and sickened by the horror of the forced family separations at the border and the overt racist, sexist and classist actions committed by those in power in the other Washington. In January, I reluctantly sat out from marching in the women’s march in Seattle as I was home caring for my three week old daughter. That day I listened to the US Gymnastics trial on KUOW. Hearing those girls’ testimonies (and later in the year the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford), I felt anger and sadness seep into my veins—along with a deepened resolve for myself and my company to be a force for the empowerment of women and girls.

In that vein, I feel honored to be serving as an ambassador spreading the word about Washington state’s exciting new Paid Family Leave Law. I am also a founding advisory board member, sponsor, and a mentor for two young businesswomen with Community Carrot, an entrepreneurship program for youth who have grown up in poverty. molly moon’s continues to champion the most powerful girl empowerment organization I experienced as a kid—Girl Scouts—through our support of two Mary’s Place Girl Scout Troops (our fundraising pays for an entire troop to go to sleep-away camp for the first time) and the Glamp fundraiser I created to pump much needed funds into the Girl Scout camp scholarship fund.

As we head into 2019… I think I have three big things going for me, and us at molly moon’s.

First, I’ll turn 40 early in the year and I’m really excited about it! I plan to celebrate all year long with lots of ice cream and cake, long weekend adventures, and my sweet family.

Second, we’re making a big change for the company and eliminating tipping in order to make our pay structure more equitable. This is scary because it hasn’t worked for some restaurants, but I think it’s going to be amazing for us. The more we learned about the unintended consequences and the racist history of tipping, the more we found the practice to be inconsistent with our values. This decision was not made without lots of thought and communication—I even had coffee with every single person who works at molly moon’s to discuss the change (that was 80+ coffee dates in 6 days!). Along with fair wages, I am proud that we will continue to provide free, high quality health, dental and vision insurance, paid vacation, 12 weeks paid family and medical leave, 401ks, subsidized ORCA transit passes and a professional development program to help all mooncrew gain management skills.

And third, I’m looking for another ice cream shop location! That is always such a fun process for me—and it means we have the opportunity to really get to know a whole new community in the neighborhood we choose.

Other things that you’ll see from our company in the new year—we’ll be launching the Anna Banana Milk Fund as its own 501c3 to donate even more fresh milk and dairy products to food banks and school programs, we will be launching exciting flavors for Women’s History Month in March: 4 flavors inspired by 4 women who inspire me, and we’ll join 100%Talent to work harder and more collaboratively to close the gender pay gap in Seattle (which has one of the widest gender pay gaps in the country!!?).

I hope all of you have high hopes and big plans for 2019! I’ll be continuing to fight for what I believe in, relishing that daily struggle between my work and home life and perhaps, just perhaps, graduating from day dates to evenings out with Zack!

May there be more ice cream in your happy new year!

Cheers!
molly moon