Nona’s Homemade Expands to Hanover

Clay Belmarsh and Sydney Washburn

Established in 2015, Nona’s Homemade is a well-known and beloved ice cream shop here in Scituate, MA. With an additional shop in Hingham, MA, the business has been very successful in its first two locations and looks to do the same in Hanover, MA, where a new shop is scheduled to open in 2021. 

Nona’s is a family-owned business operated by the Donahue family who also lives in Scituate. They make all of their ice creams from scratch in the two active shops, which makes for some great, hard serve, ice cream. Another way that Nona’s looks to get their ice cream out to the public is through their truck, which can be rented for special occasions. 

SHS junior Brendan Boyle, an employee of Nona’s Homemade in Scituate Harbor, recognizes how close the community is to the ice cream shop. He explains, “I have met so many people through work here that I would have never met without the job.” He is excited about the new store in Hanover, stating, “I am happy that they will get to experience the same community that we have here in Scituate.” Clearly, the community is very important to the people at Nona’s, and this is a special quality they have at all of their locations. 

James Cannon is an avid Nona’s Homemade customer and a junior at Scituate High School. Cannon expressed his happiness about the new store in Hanover, stating, “I always find myself in Hanover, and I am very excited to be able to help out a small business that I’ve loved for the past five years.” Nona’s has a great group of customers in both their current locations and looks forward to doing the same in Hanover.

The family-owned business has been going strong for five years now with friends and family working in the stores. The Donahue family has had four kids go through as employees along with many cousins. One of them is Scituate High School junior Mia Donahue, who is the third Donahue to go through the high school. She is thrilled about the new store in Hanover because of how it will “start to build off the great family they made over the years in Scituate and Hingham.” Donahue then went on to describe how it is always fun to visit Hingham because she works at the Scituate location, so it is exciting to get to do the same with the Hanover location.

Nona’s is just one of the small businesses in the area that has been affected by the global pandemic. But this is a great example of perseverance and making do with what you have. They have done a good job in Scituate and Hingham with adjusting to the COVID-19 protocols. In fact, they are doing so well that they are able to open another store in Hanover. Truly, the people of Hanover will be happy to know they have such a great ice cream shop coming to their town soon!