Building a deliciously joyful brand with Sierra Antroniese Young
Founder and Owner of the Mangosay Cart
Shine. The five-letter-word is both a noun characterizing the quality of brightness, and a verb describing the emittance of light. Metaphorically, it can describe the way a person enlivens a place with a certain contagious, positive energy.
Like a disco ball in the daytime, Sierra Antroniese Young is a source of radiance in communities across the San Francisco Bay Area. A food entrepreneur with a passion for service, Sierra is a stand-out one woman show. Her vehicle of joy (literally) is a bright orange 7 by 5 square foot cart that - from afar - might transport you to the set of Outside Magazine’s issue on summer glamping.
Established in 2020, Sierra’s Mangosay cart serves up over 200 mangos to local residents and visitors every week. Whether it is in the form of her famously delicious smoothies with a sprinkle of tajin, parfaits drenched in condensed coconut milk and almond granola, or seasonal mango noodles, Sierra delights patrons with a unique menu year-round.
Her mission? Promoting the health and happiness of her community one cup of sunshine at a time…
These days, Sierra pops up at low-income schools, residential communities, farmers markets, hospitals, and local venues from the historically disenfranchised blocks of East Oakland to the bustling waterfront strip of the Embarcadero. Regardless of where she rolls up to, faces light up in anticipation. Her longest time customer, Darlene Hall, reminisces on Mangosay’s early days, gathering around the cart with Sierra and a crowd of customers (and their four-legged friends) in the heart of Downtown Oakland. Darlene does not hold back her praise: “Sierra is intentional about being in all types of communities and environments, and people love what she makes. It also impresses me that she is so educated about her ingredients, and cares deeply about how to source and use different varieties of the fruit.”
To date, Sierra has delivered over 7,000 mango smoothies in the community, and is on track to close out the year at 10,000. She is a permanent vendor at the prominent San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8am-2pm, and is a beloved fixture along the lively shores of Lake Merritt (weekly hours and locations posted at mangosay.com).
So, how did this mighty effort come to be? As I settle with a pen and notebook under a giant palm tree at the Grand Lake Farmers Market grounds in Oakland one afternoon, I have the privilege of diving deep with this jubilant founder into how she ended up in California (a long way from her hometown of Lyons, Georgia) with a mango food cart business on the heels of a global pandemic.
Sierra’s journey started with an ordinary childhood in a small rural farming town. She was active in her school’s debate team and student government, and briefly considered joining the U.S. Air Force. Opting for university instead, she attended Benedict College, a historically black liberal arts college in South Carolina, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications. Before Sierra could pursue a career in communications, though, she was quite literally stopped in her tracks by a recruiter at a campus job fair. Based on a brief interaction, this recruiter expressed to Sierra that he saw potential in her to succeed in a business development and management program where she would have opportunities to learn and accelerate quickly. Although Sierra had never considered a career in business before this moment, she took a day to evaluate the opportunity, and took a chance on it. For the next 8.5 years, Sierra supported operations at PinkBerry, a national frozen yogurt brand; from the day-to-day to strategic planning, Sierra became a stellar businesswoman and manager, eventually overseeing stores across multiple US regions.
Fast forward to 2019, Sierra had ideas for a major change: to leave her role at PinkBerry and move across the country to California - a place she had visited once and loved - and figure out what else life had in store for her. “I knew that, as long as I could find an apartment and a way to support myself, I could figure the rest out,” she recalls. In the back of her mind, a seed of an idea was sprouting…
“I knew that, as long as I could find an apartment and a way to support myself, I could figure the rest out.”
- Sierra Antroniese Young
On the eve of 2020, Sierra moved to California - a notebook of ideas for a potential food truck in hand. So, for the better part of that year, while adapting to the rise of COVID-19 and stepping into more uncertainty than she had bargained for, Sierra worked tirelessly on building what would eventually become the Mangosay brand.
Phase one was deciding what to make. The one thing Sierra knew for sure was that she wanted to create something that would invite and create joy in her community - everything from the offering, to the aesthetic, and experience. The single non-negotiable was incorporating bright, happy colors.
After long nights of thinking and scrapping ideas (from rice bowls to acai-style fruit bowls), Sierra had an epiphany thinking back to a memorable college trip to Tallahassee, Florida with her friends: in a corner grocery store, she picked up and tasted a mango for the first time in her life - having grown up in a rural area where produce was limited to the basics. The flavor and sweetness of it blew her mind. She was floored.
Thinking back to this moment, the idea for her new venture was suddenly obvious. It would star mangos. Mangos were healthy and nutritious, and they aligned well with her bright and sunny vision. She would start with smoothies. For the next few weeks, Sierra and her neighbors taste-tested cup after cup of homemade mango smoothies until she arrived at the perfect combination: fresh mango, coconut water, agave, and lime. It sure was something special.
Phase two was getting her product and brand into the community. Mashing up silly words and phrases, she ultimately landed on “Mangosay” as the name of her business - the “s.a.y.” at the end of “Mango” standing for the initials of her name. This business was undeniably hers, and it felt right to have it represented front and center. Simultaneously, she spent countless hours touring spaces and researching how and where she would sell her smoothies. After ruling out leasing a storefront (due to sky-high rents and the intimidating commitment of a contract), she decided to work with a builder to design and manufacture the Mangosay cart with her exact specifications in mind: bold, bright, and practical. By Halloween of that year, her cart was ready for prime time.
Phase three came with establishing trusted partnerships. Her first stop was figuring out where to source her mangos. Initially, she faced what many small business owners do: a slew of rejections from wholesale sellers who do not want to take on the risk of supporting less established shops. She kept on asking around, though, and one day met Abdul, a community ambassador of sorts and the owner of an East Oakland produce market. Jokingly at first, Sierra asked Abdul whether he could support her with 75-100 mangos on a weekly basis to get her business up and running. Taking the inquiry seriously, Abdul replied “absolutely.” And just like that - this kicked off an incredible partnership that now involves Sierra rolling up in her work truck for weekly hauls of 200-250 mangos from Abdul’s warehouse to her commercial kitchen.
Now that she had established the basics, Sierra sought opportunities to learn how to properly run and grow her brain child. This is when she stumbled on Mandela Partners, an organization which offers workshops, coaching, and connections to local food enterprises and specifically entrepreneurs of color. Sabine Dabady of Mandela Partners witnessed Sierra’s incredible work during her time in the program, including Sierra’s journey of seeking out a commercial kitchen space required as a vendor at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Sabine recounts that Sierra worked tirelessly - “doing the research, making calls, making visits, [and] comparing prices. There were a lot of crickets for some time…but a few days before the deadline [to submit materials], Sierra was able to confirm a kitchen space. Sierra always [pushed] forward. That's a tough skill to cultivate…and, Sierra keeps going [while] inviting joy in the process.” Andrea Akers of Foodwise, the organization that operates the Farmers Market, offers similar accolades: “We're very honored to be working with Sierra. Starting off as a rotating pop-up vendor, Sierra did so well…We knew we had to keep her, [and] we were happy she accepted. Now, Sierra has been a permanent vendor with Foodwise for almost a year, selling out her delicious mango dishes and drinks almost every week and building relationships with customers and other sellers.” In Sierra’s own words, “community is service,” and it is beyond evident that she takes the business of community very seriously.
“Community is service”
- Sierra Antroniese Young
So, what is next for Sierra and the Mangosay cart? Sierra will continue to pour love tirelessly into people (and cups). Someday, she might even bring on someone to help her out, or expand to a larger cart or storefront (shhh). But for right now, she is focused on the light that this chapter has brought to her life and the sunny moments she can create, everyday, from her pizazz-y cart.
The next time you are looking for a treat, don’t forget to visit Mangosay at various pop-up locations across the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sierra, thank you for your creativity and for shining bright in your community! Our eager appetites await.