Ice cream truck provides marketable skills, educates community, owner says

EPHRATA — The Street Sweets Ice Cream and More truck is a good place to get a cold snack on a hot day, but co-owner Tiffany Mullings said it’s about more than that. “I am the autistic mother to two autistic children,” she said. “And my husband and I had a little money left over from a (financial transaction), and we thought, ‘Hey, let’s look for a step van and if we can, we’ll start an ice cream truck, as a way to give them an opportunity for meaningful employment and to build some marketable skills that they can use throughout their life.” For two years Mullings and her daughters Riley and Dorieann Mullings, 22 and 21 respectively, her co-owners in the business, have driven the streets of Ephrata throughout the spring, summer and fall. She drives, she said, and her daughters do the serving.