Niles West Decalicious soft serve ice cream is a popular treat available to students and staff during all lunch periods. Every Tuesday a long line forms at the Decalicious station where customers can choose from varying flavors and toppings.

Junior Mia Kalcina, one of the students that is frequently involved with Decalicious, expresses her thoughts on Decalicious’ progress so far.

“We have been doing pretty well, a lot of people have actually come out and helped us. We tried to incorporate new toppings and flavors so everyone is satisfied, and that’s been going well,” Kalcina said. 

Students in DECA are in charge of providing good service and keeping a clean and safe area while serving the ice cream.

“Serving ice cream is for the employees that are good at working under pressure. We make sure the supervisors are there and the DECA advisors are there as well. I’m there for 2 periods, to make sure they are not overwhelmed or stressed out,” senior Zaara Javed said.  “We have different people who serve the ice cream and toppings, and we have our cashier and supervisor.”

“Decalicious isn’t really much of a fundraising but it is our own business that we run inside of the school,” senior Megan Gartner said. Students who participate in Decalicious, are able to feel the experiences of running a business, keeping it clean and learning how to make profits.

Unlike most sales that are done at school, either for business or fundraising, Decalicious is given the privilege to access the cafeteria and receive payments from student IDs. During every lunch period when Decalicious is open, there will usually be a long line of students waiting to purchase Decalicious ice cream.

“All of the profit that we make, which is usually around $900-$1000 per sale date, is usually put towards renovating our business or getting more inventory. Really anything that will help push our brand out and get it to more students across the school,” Gartner said.

The Decalicious ice cream is organized and supervised by one of Niles West’s Business Education teachers, Trisha Brown, who is extremely proud and passionate about the ice cream sales. 

“Decalicious is definitely a learning opportunity for students. During the beginning of the year, you do run into some growth and development,” Brown said. “The group running Decalicious this year is great and have learned a lot.”