Sophia Brittan has always loved travel, language and culture. In high school and college, she traveled and lived abroad in Switzerland, Egypt, Lebanon and the Dominican Republic. She came to realize that what most appealed to her in her travels was the food. Sophia was fascinated by how and what people ate and the flavors that made up their culture. This led her to move to NYC for culinary studies at the French Culinary Institute and then holistic nutrition.
In 2011, Sophia opened her goat milk soft serve business because she wanted to create a holistically healthy soft serve. She loved eating seasonally and locally, but was finding that getting soft serve felt like the exception to her diet. She was inspired by healthy Mediterranean cuisine, where goat milk is prevalent, and part of the healthy diet. Goat milk has a smaller molecule than cow’s milk so its fat and lactose are really easily digested by the body. The month that Sophia opened her store, her mother passed away from ovarian cancer. The past five years for Sophia have been the most crucial to her personal and professional growth, as she learned how to cope with losing the person that she was closest to in her life, while going through the most challenging moments of her career.
I honestly don’t think of myself as a community leader persé, mainly just an entrepreneur. But when you have a business, you automatically create a micro community (within the business) that exists in a broader community (the customers and the neighborhood). My goal has always been to make the micro community of our employees a safe and positive place, which then extends to the wider community, so that when they are buying from us, that our products make them feel our positive contribution. It starts at the leadership level within the business. That our store becomes part of the fabric of a community of people who are working to create a positive environment.
Today, she has more than a storefront in NYC. Sophia also sells her goat milk gelato in stores in NYC like Whole Foods, making a rose petal ice cream flavor inspired by the Middle East and cajeta ice cream flavor from her Mexican heritage.
Community equity building is finding ways for your business to help the community, or being a positive presence in the community where your customers live. Profits with purpose for me means standing behind a good ethical model for your brand, and that your profits come from a greater good and go to a greater good.
She explains to Enclave what inspires her the most about Project American Dreams:
I am most inspired by the products that I have seen being sold. It is an amazing showcase for American entrepreneurship, invention, and talent from the Latino community. I am in awe of the other people who are competing and their ingenuity.
She dreams of reaching more Latinos in the USA who are lactose intolerant but who are used to creamy Latin American desserts that use cow’s milk. Sophia is inspired by the hope that one day everyone will try her gelato and that goat milk gelato will be a normal product to find in the supermarket. One that will delight the masses. She further dreams to be able to mentor fun, younger women, especially Latinas, and encourage them to believe in themselves.
I treasure the warmth of the Latino community. That the family unit is not so nuclear- it is as big as it needs to be to protect and care for everyone in and around it. The community cares for one another and helps each other out. That they are proud of their people and accomplishments.
Follow Sofia Brittan @VictoryGardenNY
Follow Project American Dreams @DreamersVenture
