BONITA, Calif. (KGTV) - A Bonita family known for making thousands of Christmas gift bags for foster youth and children in Tijuana are starting a new business.
Sisters Darlene and Diane Zoura and Daphne Khairo love food, but finding a meal they could all eat was hard.
"I can't even have a little drop of milk or I'll have an upset stomach," Darlene said. "Diane has a gluten allergy and both Daphne's daughters have an egg allergy as well."
So they went to work in the kitchen, "it was a lot of trial and error, a lot of brainstorming of trying to work around it," Darlene said.
They came up with plant based sauces that not only everyone could eat, but Daphne's kids were asking for more. "Every time they have something to eat, they're asking me do you have the sauce?? I'm like what sauce? Ketchup? They say no no! The sauce!" Daphne said laughing with her sisters.
They created Ranch, Chili Chipotle and Jalepeño Cilantro sauces under the brand Sistry Foods.
In August of 2018, Diane brought the Chili Chipotle sauce to a fundraising volleyball tournament she hosts each year. The funds go to a worthy cause like cancer treatment for a little girl or an Iraq orphanage. This time it was for St. John's Church, serving the Chaldean Iraqui refugee community.
"We had people come up to us and ask us if they could buy it right then and there and that's when we knew we had to share it with everyone else," Diane said.
The sisters created a Kickstarter 15 days ago and have raised more than $14,000. Their goal is $50,000.
"We have about 45 days left of our Kickstarter and the way the Kickstarter works is if we don't hit our goal of $50,000, it's all or nothing so either we meet our goal and get $50,000 or we get nothing," Darlene said.
The end date is May 12. The sisters are ready for the challenge thanks to the leaps of faith their parents took to get them here.
"We are daughters of immigrants. Our parents came here with their families to start a new life and they started with nothing to build the American dream and we were really inspired by that. We want to start and build our dream and make a difference in the world like they did," Diane said.
She and her sisters hope their healthy food brings joy to other families.
"Especially with the pandemic, we learned how important our health is and how do we promote health? By what we eat... We are what we eat and this product is perfect for what we've gone through over the last year," Diane said.
If they reach their goal, they will go into production and sell their sauces online.
They hope to one day expand their line of sauces to incorporate their Middle Eastern heritage.
