Somali-owned Hoyo will soon see its sambusas in Lunds, at the State Fair and a new batch of school districts

A frozen sambusa business started by three Somali sisters had a problem. It had received a contract from Lunds & Byerlys, some school districts and a restaurant, but the kitchen wasn’t big enough.

With help from the African Development Center in Minneapolis and Midtown Global Market owner Neighborhood Development Center — which jointly provided $500,000 in bridge loans — Hoyo will move this month into a $1.6 million commercial kitchen in the basement of Midtown on Lake Street in Minneapolis.

“We couldn’t produce enough to meet all the demands, so that’s why we’re really happy we’re going to be in this new facility,” Hoyo CEO Ghita Worcester said.

She said production will double to 8,000 sambusas a day.

Hoyo, which means “mother” in Somali, is about to triple in size and will even be at the mother of all food venues: the Minnesota State Fair.

Hoyo sambusas will be in the frozen food aisles at Lunds starting in July.

The 10-year-old company already makes its frozen sambusas for 29 Minnesota school districts and 62 grocery stores and co-ops, including the Wedge, Mississippi Market, Seward Co-op, Linden Hills Co-op, Eastside Food Co-op and 36 Lyn Refuel Station.

They also are served at Chowgirls at the Guthrie Theater and school districts in Rochester, Minnetonka and Willmar, Minn. New contracts for the crunchy beef and lentil-filled triangles have come from districts in Ohio, California and Virginia after school officials there heard stories on NPR and the BBC.

The new production equipment and kitchen took a village to create and marks a dream, Hoyo co-founder Mariam Mohamed said.

Instead of having four men haul, separate and hand-grind large chunks of beef, she said, “we will just push a button.”

And instead of women pulling long sheets of dough — and pulling them again — a machine will do that work.

“We are excited about the equipment,” Mohamed said. “We have to change the way we are working. But we can hire and train more people, and increase production. I am excited and nervous at the same time.”

Mohamed, a Somali-born and U.S.-educated widow of former Somali Prime Minister Ali Galaydh, started Hoyo to provide jobs to Somali mothers who often struggled to find steady work in Minnesota because of limited English skills.

Fast-forward to now, and Hoyo generates $750,000 in annual revenue. It has 24 employees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere who produce 4,000 sambusas a day.

But that’s no longer enough, said Mohamed, who came to the U.S. for graduate school and earned a master’s degree in plant and environmental sciences. She went on to become a program manager at the McKnight Foundation before starting the company with sister Asha and Matt Glover.

“I was raised to be happy when the work you do helps others succeed,” she said. “That is what drives me. That gives me energy. That is my strength.”

The business started modestly enough in 2015. Workers made the meat pies at home, using the recipe of another sister, Halima, and fried them at farmers markets and food shelves.

One customer was a Minneapolis school district employee, who in turn connected Mohamed with the district’s food services department.

That required ramping up.

The Meetinghouse Church in Edina provided a $43,000 innovation grant for the first expansion. Lindquist & Vennum attorney Richard Primuth gave pro bono legal services.

Meanwhile, General Mills helped Mohamed and Glover perfect a frozen-food wholesale model and ensured the fledgling company was properly certified under U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules.

Mohamed knew where to find the workers. Most Somali girls grow up making the labor intensive sambusas for holidays, festivals and weddings, she said.

So she tapped Minneapolis’ Somali immigrant community for her first employees.

Mohamed was convinced that with milder spices, her homeland’s sambusas could go mainstream in Minnesota. They did.

Today, Hoyo’s goal is to make 2 million sambusas a year, said Worcester, who joined the company last year as CEO after retiring as chief growth officer at UCare.

“When they brought me in, it was to help grow the company, but it’s taken time to figure out how to put together the capital budget to be able to build our own food production facility,” Worcester said.

A new kitchen would let Hoyo do more catering, develop new products and experiment with packaging, she said.

Lunds & Byerlys, for example, required the company to come up with a four-pack instead of its usual five-pack. The grocery chain also wanted to include two dipping sauces, a tamarind/date blend and basbaas jalapeno lemon.

Restaurant customers have asked for a mini sambusa option for catering.

Separately, Mohamed, Halima and Worcester are working with General Mills and 4 Access Partners to develop a line of chicken sambusas with coconut lime sauce.

“We hope to have out in the market by next winter,” Worcester said.

But first, they needed a kitchen and cash under a tight deadline.

The Neighborhood Development Center, Midtown’s co-owner, already trains entrepreneurs at Midtown and agreed to convert its basement storage area into the first-class, 3,000-square-foot commercial kitchen. The state of Minnesota loaned Hoyo $300,000 at a 1% interest rate in conjunction with U.S. Bank.

The development center raised another $100,000 in grants and helped Hoyo apply for a $600,000 federal agriculture grant for the project.

With funding in hand, Betsy Vohs at Studio BV designed the space. Shane Weis at ShaneCon started construction. Equipment was ordered. The Lake Street Council brought in experts in accounting and federal food regulations.

And the city of Minneapolis corralled a team to smooth the permitting process.

“We are really, really excited. It’s a win-win for Midtown Global Market and Hoyo,” said Ben Johnson, the development center’s vice president of real estate and development.

The kitchen construction proved “a very challenging buildout” requiring complex mechanical, power, exhaust and air filtration systems, Johnson said.

But the team helping Hoyo just wanted it to work.

“We were all inspired by Mariam and her sisters and just want to help,” said Minneapolis strategic initiatives director Lisa Goodman.

“They are creating new jobs. And their products are one of the best sambusas I’ve ever had. And their dipping sauces are over the top. I make roasted chicken thighs with their tamarind and date sambusa sauce.”

Mohamed, who flew home to Somalia to bury her mother last week, will return to Minnesota in time to celebrate Hoyo’s grand opening with her 30 workers on June 17.

“I am happy. Empowering community and giving them sustainable jobs and training so they can be part of the greater society is important,” she said.