BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Much of the country has been battling budget issues and job layoffs, and as a major heat wave has struck at the beginning of summer, politicians are outraged at the latest major crisis that has come on the horizon.

Unilever, the company that manufactures Good Humor dessert products, is experiencing a major ice cream shortage.

According to an Associated Press report, Unilever PLC said sales increases during a relatively mild spring and the closing of its Hagerstown manufacturing plant next month have limited supplies of Toasted Almond, Candy Center Crunch and Chocolate Eclair bars to their ice cream trucks.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg spoke about the estimated 10,000 children and families who are doing without ice cream.“The biggest thing on their mind is ice-cream,” he said, according to the Long Island Press. “It is not the Nassau fiscal crisis.”

A spokesman for Unilever said the company anticipated alleviating the problem by the end of July, according to the Wall Street Journal. Unilever says shortages are limited to the Good Humor products sold on ice cream trucks.

Daisy Ice Cream Co. owner Keith Bartholomew from Madison Heights, Michigan posed the burning question of the day, according to The Detroit News. "Do you know how bad you feel when you make a 5-year-old cry by telling them we're out of SpongeBob?" he asked. SpongeBob is a bar based on the familiar cartoon character.

Bartholomew said he's had drivers quit because they can't stand to turn customers away due to the shortage.

“We’re really not sure why this is happening,” Denenberg, who was surrounded by kids said, according to the New York Post. “Today, I scream, you scream, we all scream for a lack of ice cream!”