Community helps business restock after Matthew

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A local ice cream business is faced with a major set after Hurricane Matthew leaves them with no inventory. The company is now looking for options to get back on their feet.

While New Hanover County only saw minimal amount of damage from the hurricane, many people did loose power which ended up costing Nye’s Cream Sandwiches company a lot of time and money.

“We saw catastrophic effects to our business just because it is ice cream,” Owner Christian Nye said. “It’s a frozen product so the loss of power obviously left us without freezers for about 60 hours.”

Nye said he was forced to throw out about 20,000 sandwiches that were completely melted.

“About another 5,000 to 8,000 were semi-melted,” Nye said. “We can’t sell those though, but still great to eat.”

Nye says he didn’t want the left over sandwiches go to waste so he donated thousands to Port City Community Church Friday which are being passed out to people who donate items for Hurricane Matthew victims.

“My initial thought was, ‘How are we going to keep the business a float?'” Nye said.

He says they do have insurance, but are not sure how much will be covered. That’s why Nye and his wife Kelly turned to social media for help. They started a GoFundMe page and have raised nearly 5,000 dollars in 3 days.

“We have seen just tremendous support from family, friends, and people I’ve never even met before,” Nye said. “For years you think you are in this battling alone as a small business owner and then to see this support really, really humbles me.”

He says although he’s overwhelmed by the community’s response, his problem is not nearly as devastating as what others are currently going through in the area.

“In the big picture, we will recover from this, it’s ice cream, but people have lost their homes and lives,” Nye said.

While money still comes in, he says if insurance does cover the loss inventory then the donations will be given back.

His first reaction was to cut his losses and quit the business, but he said that’s changed when they received so much feedback.

“With this response on GoFundMe and the prayers and the emails, for me to say I’m done would not be the right thing to do for me and for the people who enjoy them so we will recover from this,” Nye said.

Nye says they have stopped taking orders at the moment, but plan to get back to work Monday and begin restocking their inventory.