We recently connected with Frank McDonald and have shared our conversation below.
Frank , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
My mission started out with No real mission, if anything getting by was the mission. Finishing school and completing a trade at Job Corps. I wasn’t necessarily sure what I wanted to do after getting a education. So I did what most did, find the easiest path to getting to a destination where I’d be ok. I reached for something artistic. I didn’t think I’d like it that much, I mean I always loved art and creating something but honestly I was there because I thought it was easy. However, I found myself intrigued with culinary arts. The creation of different styles and types of food and flavors, it actually came to be a passion. But you see as society would label this as on track I found myself with a child on the way and money wasn’t that rewarding right away. Future for arts seemed low. So I found myself back in school studying to be a pharmacy technician. I was surprisingly good at it, so I stuck with it. I graduated tech school and worked 10 plus years as a pharm tech one of the best in my field. I was able to be financially ok. Well temporarily, As I would soon find out I was rapidly reaching my ceiling. As I was becoming good at this I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something, so I reach back for Art but grabbed music not culinary. The music making was fun meant some awesome individuals but not quite it for me. So in 2019 I dug deep and came up with Kandy Ices. A water ice and fruit dessert business. Specializing in making people smile and enjoying themselves. All the while creating these beautiful products each one different and customized to the customers topping choice. Making these made me happy as well, I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. Smiling from ear to ear when I present the product the people cheered. I felt alive I felt free. I finally found it, I found what I was looking for, I found me.
Frank , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Well Kandy Ices was established in 2019. We started out in a ghost kitchen. For those who aren’t sure what those are, picture an apartment building with multiple floors each room has a kitchen about 200 square feet no windows. Just you and your appliances and food. We worked off the food platforms such as UberEats and Door dash etc. It felt like a prison, but that was the beginning. See in those buildings is where I refined my arts for these products and got better. So in 2021 we obtained a food truck and was the best thing outside of my kids birth I could’ve done. Since then Ive done huge festivals like Made In America, pride fest, Odunde festival etc. we’ve made the good morning America News on fox with Mike Jerrick and Sue Serio they came out to get some treats from us. I have to say that’s what kind of got the word out to the tristate about us. Found our social media Instagram account blow up almost instantly. There are a couple of things to know when you come to Kandy Ices for a treat. One, the pineapple water ice shorty is waterice inside of a pineapple and you can customize it with candy and fruit Art. The other is the watermelon fun bowl, cored as well and we can do the same thing with it. For those who wants a miniature version try our Kandy Ice cup it’s smaller but also still cool and refreshing. We can customize your pineapple, watermelon or cup treats to your clothes or shoes. It’s all Art to me. What people don’t know about us is we can also provide foods like chilli fries, chicken wings, chicken fingers etc. Lastly if you’d like to, be ready for a pic for our social media platform @kandyices on Instagram and kandy Ices on Facebook. So if you have one follow us there as well. If you want to book us for a catering or event. Our site is wwwkandyices.com email us your details and we’d gladly see if that dates available for you. We are also on google so it’s very easy to find us. Our truck sits at 33rd and market Street Sundays 10-4pm barring any events. We post when and where we will be via social media when we do pop ups.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
See I grew up in the inner city where making it was living passed 25. So I already felt like I made it when I graduated trade school for culinary arts. So when I created Kandy Ices it was like an Atomic bomb went off. However I almost missed this calling. It was around 2018 where we just buried my aunt the woman that raised me and 4 other siblings. The year before I started Kandy Ices. This year was horrible for me. I was visiting my daughter and dropping her off presents for the holidays. When 2 men approached my vehicle with guns to rob me. I had a gun drawn to the back of my head while they searched for money. While they searched all I could do is close my eyes and pray and say if I made it out of this I would do my best to make sure me or my family would never be put in this position ever again. That was a life changing experience.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
A lot of people won’t know this but some will. To make ends meet while working at a pharmacy I did Uber/Lyft. I worked from sun up to sun down saving and waiting until I had enough to get my 1st food truck. During my trips when talking to passengers they’d ask what I do, and was this my only job. I’d tell them my idea and ask them to follow my @kandyices page on IG. So solute to all my beginning followers seeing that I really had to hustle to get here. 
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.kandyices.com
- Instagram: @kandyices
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/kandyices
- Yelp: Kandy Ices
Image Credits
Markovka Edits