Caseyville’s Dairy Haven planned to cut hours, then the community stepped in. What happened?
In case you missed it, I recently reported that Dairy Haven in Caseyville was struggling with some staffing issues. The ice cream shop announced it would be cutting hours and closing either the walk-up window or the drive-thru.
Well, I’m happy to say that this is no longer the case.
The ice cream shop’s Facebook page posted an update on Tuesday afternoon saying it will not be changing its hours and that the front windows and drive-thru will remain open.
The post stated that after the BND article, the ice cream shop “had a massive wave of applicants applying to join the Dairy Haven crew as well as an outpour from the community concerned about the establishment and its employees.”
The post went on to say, “It’s because of this community and our amazing customers that we’re able to still continue slinging ice cream!”
There are more than 265 reader comments on the post.
In an interview with the BND, Josh Hill, manager and son of owner Susan Hill, said: “We were so excited that it worked out in our favor.”
Josh Hill said that previous Facebook posts and onsite signage that they were hiring just weren’t attracting enough applicants.
He said that once word of their struggles got out to a wider audience, so many people came to fill out applications. Many applicants picked up an application, filled it out in their car and brought it right back, according to Hill.
Not only are there three new hires now being trained, Hill said that some of their former employees from previous years have returned to help as well.
Once the newbies are trained, Hill said that they plan to hire more from the stack of applications they have in hand.
So Dairy Haven will carry on serving ice cream to the masses.
The staff asks the public to please be patient with the new crew as they are trained.
Located at 112 N. Main St. in Caseyville, Dairy Haven’s hours are still noon to 9 p.m. daily.
For more information about Dairy Haven, call 618-345-8866 or visit facebook.com/DairyHaven.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 12:07 PM.
