It’s tough to wrap up everything that’s unfolded at Hoyo Sambusa since it started a decade ago.
Hoyo, which means “mother” in Somali, was founded to help empower women from Somalia.
Ghita Worcester, a Blue Cross executive, came out of retirement to help start a company she believes in.
“If we can get more efficient here, we can hopefully do much more regionally and then nationally,” Worcester, CEO of Hoyo, said.
Mariam Mohamed, co-owner of Hoyo, came to the U.S. as a college student. She and her late husband, a professor, made Minnesota home.
She had a successful consulting career, but realized it wasn’t that clear-cut for refugees.
“You have to have some resilience to really not fall into the traps,” Mohamed said. “And so what we saw, what was happening for the Somali women, they will be on welfare, and you have limitations on welfare.”
She broke down the barriers by breaking down dough, making sambusas and making financially independent immigrants.
Hoyo now works out of a $1.6 million facility. It had a stand at the 2025 Minnesota State Fair and its sambusas are served in school lunchrooms around the state.
“(A superintendent) told me, ‘Mariam, it’s so amazing because it brought the Somali kids and the American kids together.'” Mohamed said. “And they go home and they say, ‘We got this from the Somali community.’ So parents, their children will tell them, ‘I like this, Mom, you have to buy it.’ So, it has been an amazing experience for those who knew the Somali people, but they were bystanders, not knowing the food they make is one of the best food, because everybody loves sambusa.”
Hoyo is a $1 million company, but Worcester and Mohamed haven’t taken a penny.
“My dream is to hire, I mean, for me, is hiring more people,” Mohamed said. “And the more we do that, the more potential we will have to hire more people. And the more people we hire is how we are really contributing and changing the lives of these people. That’s my dream.”