Momentum: A Taste of Community Flavor

Presented by Moments Media, TA98’s Digital Storytelling Division

Written by Araceli Ramirez

Photography by Araceli Ramirez, Pedro Ramirez

Webpage Design by David Rojas Jr

Behind the glass counter at Sabores Nevería y Frutería, rows of mango, blueberry and watermelon paletas gleamed on ice. Among them was a new creation: strawberry lemonade with a gummy worm frozen inside, its bright curl peeking out beside the wooden stick. Months earlier, that playful pink paleta was only an idea in the mind of The Alliance 98 youth member Delilah Fernandez. 

​​”The collaboration definitely gave me important experience,” she said. “I don’t know what I want to do after school and have told the team I want to experience different fields to see my options.”  

Fernandez, 16, a Farragut High School student, joined TA98 this summer through One Summer Chicago, which provides paid internships for young people. She started as a Kickback participant, and TA98 connected her with Sabores, a local family business, to turn her idea into a hands-on project. By September, she was leading a collaboration with the shop, designing a flavor, testing recipes with friends and planning a small launch.

 
When it came time to settle on the recipe, Fernandez asked the Kickback team to vote on flavors. Strawberry lemonade won, but she wanted to add her own spin. Inspired by her favorite bubblegum paleta—the kind with gum pieces at the bottom—she suggested gummy worms.

For weeks, Fernandez hovered over sticky counters with Sabores co-owner Jose Montoya and her sister, squeezing lemons, stirring sugar cane into water, and tasting batch after batch of strawberry puree.

“We weren’t really measuring; it was just experimenting and following instincts,” she said. After five rounds of trial and error, they arrived at the final version.

The trio spent long summer afternoons preparing and wrapping paletas in batches of 40. At first, the pace was overwhelming. 

“They would come out all at once, and we were struggling to wrap them before they started melting,” Fernandez recalled. 

The experience left her with a newfound patience she will carry with her.

“I thought it was easy at first, like just making a milkshake and freezing them but there's really a lot more that goes into it,” Fernandez said. “They know how much sugar, water and all that.” 

Fernandez followed TA98’s design-thinking steps: listen, define the goal, try ideas, test and improve. With regular check-ins and support on branding and content, the project produced a youth-led product, a stronger partnership with Sabores and a model TA98 can replicate.

 On Sept. 13, the freezer doors swung open and the neighborhood crowded in. Dozens of residents lined the counter, and the first 40 left grinning, free paletas in hand, gummy worms gleaming through the pink ice.  

Among the customers was returning TA98 member Isabella Huerta. “I wanted to see how it tastes, how it looks,” she said. “It definitely tastes like gummy worms.”

For co-owner Mireya Montoya, the event was about more than introducing a new flavor. She and her husband Jose had opened Sabores just three months earlier, after more than a decade helping run Los Mangos, a local fruit and ice cream chain started by Jose’s brother.

“Sabores means flavors. We don’t just have ice cream, we have frutas, elotes, nachos and sandwiches,” Mireya said. “We want to offer more to the neighborhood.”

She added that the collaboration underscored her family’s connection to young people. “Most of our clients are young people, but events like this bring something new to the entire community,” Mireya said. 

Her daughter, Raquelle Montoya, put it more simply: “My mom talks to everybody, and she’s the sweetest person in the world.”

By the end of the afternoon, more than 80 paletas had been shared with neighbors. Fernandez was even offered a job at the shop, but the experience went far beyond flavor. 

“I feel like Sabores showed me the community side of work and being able to connect,” she said. “They showed me that side and it’s really sweet.” 

By sundown on 26th Street, Fernandez and her peers handed out paletas to families, cyclists and bus riders.