Life

Where To Get Free Ben & Jerry's

by Maddy Foley

Rejoice, my sweet, sugar-craving friends! Today is a good day, a kind day, a fair day — a day in which all who want a free Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone may receive a free Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone, so long as they are willing to wait in a bit of a line, because hello, everyone else also wants a free ice cream cone, too. "Where can I get a free Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone?" you ask. Well, good news: Ask and you shall receive.

Today is not just any day — today, April 12, is the official Ben & Jerry's Free Ice Cream Cone Day for 2016. It is a day when, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., one may receive a free scoop of any kind of ice cream flavor they want at participating Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops. A day in which, hey, if you don't mind lines, you can just keep getting free scoops forever. Or until 8 p.m. Whichever comes first. But the point is that there's no ice cream scoop cap.

Today is a day that began in 1979, in humble Burlington, Vt., home of Ben & Jerry's, as a way of thanking patrons for their kind words and nice buying of ice cream during the ice cream company's very first year. It's now a global event, which more than 1 million scoops being handed out each year.

I know, very exciting. It's one of my favorite holidays. But where, oh where to find a participating store? You don't need to call each one to find out (actually, probably don't call them at all — they are almost certainly swamped with, you know, handing out millions of scoops and whatnot). You don't need to aimlessly Google, "Free ice cream where?" because I'm not even sure what that would bring up. You simply need to visit the Ben and Jerry's store locator! Where there's a special little box to check that will refine your store search to only include participating Free Cone Day stores! It's so simple!

Ta-da! Those right there are my personal options. They are not your personal options — unless you live in Chicago, in which case, you're welcome, here are your personal options as well.

Happy ice cream day, my sweets!

Images: Giphy; Ben & Jerry's