Jere Downs

@JereDowns

Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield flew from Vermont to Dayton, Ohio – to the closest Ben & Jerry's scoop shop near Louisville – to pick up the ice cream he would scoop for free Wednesday with campaign remarks for Bernie Sanders.

From his silver Chrysler minivan on I-71 loaded with 15 gallons of Americone Dream, Cherry Garcia and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Greenfield talked about stumping for the Democratic Socialist and longtime U.S. senator from Vermont in advance of Tuesday's presidential primary contest versus Hillary Clinton in Kentucky.

"I am like a traveling ice cream show. I've got ice cream. I've got scoops. I've got cups. I've got napkins," said Greenfield, who along with partner Ben Cohen sold Ben & Jerry's to Unilever for more than $300 million in 2001. "You might think that when you've reached the level that Ben and I have reached, we would be a little beyond this ..."

"You never outgrow dragging ice cream and cups and spoons."

Greenfield and Cohen are on the B team for Sanders, who has electrified young voters nationwide and helped nudge the Clinton campaign to the left, but could not be in Louisville for the campaign event Wednesday at Fourth Street Live! downtown. As a result, Greenfield, 65, said he got the call Sunday night to give a stump talk and free scoops in support of progressive politics.

In Vermont, where the pair founded Ben & Jerry's in the 1970s, "we've been constituents of Bernie for over 35 years," Greenfield said. "We've seen him firsthand and understand what a genuine person he is."

All that time, Greenfield added, "he's been talking about supporting people whose voices are not heard, whether it is senior citizens or working families."

Before practicing the art of politics in Louisville, Greenfield said he first planned instruction on the craft of scooping ice cream to Sanders campaign volunteers on hand for the rally. It takes about 30 seconds, he said, to teach people the proper way to scoop flavors like Americone Dream, a swirl of caramel and chocolate in vanilla ice cream.

"You don't want to be injured," Greenfield said. "You don't want to develop carpal tunnel syndrome. It's about your ergonomics."

Then comes the speech, a five- to seven-minute ramble Greenfield said he's given many times while campaigning for Sanders across the U.S.

"Bernie is a politician who is not for sale. Unlike any other politician ... he doesn’t take contributions from Wall Street, or the fossil fuel industry or the pharmaceutical industry. People really relate to that. They feel like our government has been taken over by money in politics and the super rich and the corporations. That is what I like to talk about," he said.

Unilever has no connection to his Sanders' endorsement, nor does the company fund the ice cream or the pitch, he added.

"We buy the ice cream," he said. "The campaign sends me here. They got my plane ticket. They are renting the car."

While any voter loves ice cream, no matter their political stripe, Greenfield said he expects to find young voters and more mature people "who have become disillusioned by what has happened to this country."

"There are a lot of people who want to make a difference, particularly young people, who have not been turned off by the system yet," he said. "Bernie is the only candidate who is willing to talk about how the political system and the economic system is rigged for the benefit of the wealthy and the corporations."

Politics and progressive business practices are integral to the ice cream company's brand.

Americone Dream is the 2007 flavor inspired by Stephen Colbert, host of CBS' "The Late Show" and former host of "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.

On Tuesday at a political event, Ben & Jerry's will introduce a new flavor, "Empowermint" to benefit the North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The issue that inspired its creation, the Ben & Jerry's website said, is that "Huge groups of Americans face incredible barriers to voting – like voter ID laws that disproportionately keep African Americans and other minorities from casting their ballots, confusing registration processes, and shortened early voting periods."

For any Ben & Jerry's fan, Greenfield said he would end his remarks by wielding a scoop of his own from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"I’m going to jump in and do scooping, too. There are people who really like to have their ice cream scooped personally by Jerry."

Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669, JDowns@Courier-Journal.com and Jere Downs on Facebook.