Latest news with #ChunkyMonkey
New York Post
22-04-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Unilever threatens to pull funding for Ben & Jerry's Foundation as progressive battle escalates: report
Unilever has threatened to pull funding for the Ben & Jerry's Foundation – escalating its battle to muzzle the left-leaning ice cream brand's progressive activism, according to a report. The company has demanded Ben & Jerry's Foundation submit to an expedited audit of its donations to continue receiving funding, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Unilever, which is based in London, gives approximately $5 million to the foundation each year, based on a formula of the ice cream company's sales and inflation, sources told Reuters. 3 Unilever has threatened to pull funding for the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, according to a report. REUTERS Ben & Jerry's and Unilever did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment. Ben & Jerry's Foundation donates to social justice grassroots organizations in the US, with an emphasis on groups in Vermont, where Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded the ice cream brand. It has supported the Human Rights Coalition, a prison reform group led by formerly incarcerated individuals; Felony Murder Elimination Project, which protests a California rule that allows the death penalty for felons who did not commit a murder; and Adelante Student Voices, a network for undocumented students. The company's threat to yank funding is retaliation for a lawsuit filed in November, when Ben & Jerry's accused Unilever of attempting to silence its pro-Palestinian messaging, the sources said. Ben & Jerry's has protested the war in Gaza and called for police departments to be defunded. The ice cream company – known for funky flavors like Phish Food, Half Baked and Chunky Monkey – has also accused Unilever of preventing it from speaking out against President Trump. 3 Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen, co-founders of Ben & Jerry's, serving free ice cream during a Scoop The Vote event. Getty Images for MoveOn Cohen, who co-founded Ben & Jerry's in 1978, earlier this month revealed he's trying to gather a group of investors to buy back the brand, as Unilever prepares to spin off the company and the rest of its ice cream businesses. He pleaded with Unilever to 'set us free.' Tensions have been bubbling up for months as the parent company tried to silence its unruly ice cream brand. In March, Ben & Jerry's claimed Unilever fired chief executive David Stever – who started as a tour guide for the ice cream brand's Waterbury factory – over the company's anti-Trump political activism. 3 Ben & Jerry's claimed Unilever fired its longtime chief executive. Getty Images Ben & Jerry's said the firing violated its 2000 merger agreement with the London firm. Unilever, however, argued it has the authority to appoint a new chief executive, and that the decision would only be made after speaking with the board. It's unclear whether Stever is still with the company. With Post wires
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Rivian And Ben & Jerry's Team Up For Sweet New Ice Cream Trucks
I scream! You scream! We all scream for... Rivian? Apparently we do, if the latest news out of Vermont is anything to go by. According to Ben & Jerrys and Elektrek, everyone's favorite hippie uncles are teaming up with ace EV maker Rivian to build fancy pants B&J ice cream trucks. These "scoop trucks" as they're calling them will be built on Rivian's RCV-series commercial vans, the charming, friend-shaped electric delivery vans that Amazon has been rolling for the past few years. The scoop trucks will make their debut at South by Southwest, the annual film, music, and culture festival held in Austin, Texas. After SXSW, which runs from March 7 to March 15, 2025, the new scoop trucks will be dispatched all across the country to support both Rivian community events and special Ben & Jerry's shindigs. Just think, soon you'll be able to buy your Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia from the back of a sleek electric Rivian van instead of a beat-up, sketchy looking old panel van playing a MIDI mix of Turkey in the Straw. What a time to be alive. "Collaborating with the Ben & Jerry's team to build the next generation of electric scoop trucks has been an incredible experience. It's one of those projects that just makes the team smile," said Brian Gase, Senior Director of Prototype Development at Rivian. "We can't wait for people to stop by for some ice cream and see it in action for the first time during SXSW!" A Rivian/B&J match up seems like a no-brainer. One of Ben and Jerry's core missions, aside from making really good ice cream with punny names, is using the company's money and pull to try to make the world a better place. On the company's website, it states that its values are "Human Rights & Dignity", "Social & Economic Justice", and "Environmental Protection, Restoration, & Regeneration." It makes sense, then that the company would partner with an EV company to build out some environmentally friendly ice cream trucks. Read more: Tesla Recalls Almost Every Car It's Sold In The US The creation of B&J's scoop trucks was made possible, in part, by Rivian's recent announcement that the company would sell its RCV-series vans to anyone with the cash to buy one. See, up until recently, Rivian only sold the vans to big commercial fleet buyers. From the van's introduction in 2019 until 2023, it had one user—Amazon. This was only fair, seeing as how Amazon helped fund its development. After Amazon's exclusivity agreement ran out in 2023, however, Rivian offered the EDV to other companies with huge fleets of ICE vehicles like AT&T. Now, as of Feb 2025, Rivian will sell the van to all comers, as long as they're a business. The RCV-series (née EDV) consists of two models—the RCV 500 and RCV 700. The numbers correspond to the cubic feet of storage each van can carry—487 and 652 respectively—and the total carry weight is around 2,500 pounds. Range is pretty respectable at 150 miles for the 700 and 161 miles for the 500, and both vans can charge at stations with either j1172 or CCS1 connectors with fast charging speeds up to 100 kW. They will, of course, have the same handsome, friendly styling of Amazon's EDV vans. While Rivian plans to sell the RCV-series vans to just about anyone, including individuals, they're not for sale to the hoi polloi like you and me. You have to be a business to buy one, so you can expect to start seeing them pop up in local plumber, florist, and other small business livery eventually. There's no word on if and when Rivian will sell these for non-business purposes, so if you're a van nerd looking to get into one of these just because, you're out of luck. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
