"Ohana means family, and family means nobody is left behind or forgotten." That beautiful quote is from the classic Disney movie "Lilo & Stitch". If you haven't seen the movie, you absolutely should, as it emphasizes the importance of family in all of it's unique forms!
When we were first starting our company a few years ago, we wanted our name to reflect some of our values and priorities, and still accurately represent the product of Hawaiian shave ice. The trailer we use was originally "The Funky Flamingo" and we half considered trying to keep that name and re-market for West Michigan. We had goofy names out there, names we couldn't pronounce, and we felt frustrated and like nothing was a perfect fit for our family-owned business. Someone threw out "Ohana" and repeated the above quote at one of our meetings, and it finally felt right. We looked around the table at our ohana and decided that "Ohana Hawaiian Ice" was the perfect name for our business and our truck. Since we made that decision, our idea of Ohana has been represented in so many aspects of our business. We talk through decisions to best benefit our customers & their ohanas, as well as making sure that we are a cohesive unit as a family that works together.
Some of those decisions have taken a long time to decide on, and others we were able to jump right on after one or two quick conversations. For example, we decided to add in a dye free strawberry flavor because a few concerned parents asked us, citing a dye allergy in their child. As a family focused company, we wanted to make sure every child (and their parents!) could come and safely enjoy a delicious shave ice treat anytime, so we added dye free strawberry to our menu. Our coconut is also dye free, and mixed together, we create a flavor called the "White Tiger"! We also decided to add passionfruit to our menu so that our customers could fulfill their dreams of having "pog" again - passionfruit, orange, and guava together on a shave ice. We expanded our topping selection so that our customers could create fantastic flavors like "Caramel Cheesecake" "Chocolate Covered Strawberry" and many more.
We also like to help out our customers when we can by giving suggestions for flavors, helping them carry their ice to their cars with AC when they have their hands full with kids and shave ice, and remaking shave ice that splatters to the pavement in the hands of a child (or an adult - it happens way more often than you'd think). These simple actions show that we are Ohana first, family focused, and we think the word Ohana pushes us to be better in business and in our family lives, every single day.
From our Ohana to yours, thank you for joining us on this journey and helping us grow! We are so grateful and happy that we are your number one choice for shave ice in West Michigan!