Girls on Fire is a global and local community of women celebrating women + food + drink - everyone from the people who grow it, make it, serve it, photograph it, write about, promote it and enjoy it. My passion for connecting with people through food + drink comes from growing up in Historic Lewiston, NY, a small, tight-knit farming community along the Niagara River, known as the ‘Home of the Peac
h Festival’ and is best expressed in this quote by Chef/Author Deborah Madison:
“…I experienced something I can only think of as deep nourishment; food as sacramental sustenance that went far beyond everything we usually make food into. These were foods that were whole in the deepest sense, foods that were alive, and foods you could feel; foods that came from human hands, hearts and minds at work. As soon as I tasted them, I felt something different, and a feeling of reverence arose spontaneously. This was physical and spiritual nourishment, food that expressed webs and layers of connections. I believe that we are nourished by foods that have integrity, that come from a place where things are connected.”
Girls on Fire is about this deep nourishment we - especially as women - give and receive through food + drink and the lives we can live and inspire by sharing it. My ultimate hope is that by co-creating a global and local community of women celebrating women + food + drink is that together we can unleash the fire that lives inside every girl and cultivate the next generation of women who work in food + drink. About Girls on Fire Founder/Creative Director Sara Brito:
Sara is a strategic thinker and doer who likes to connect the dots and makes big ideas happen. As an independent brand and marketing strategist, Sara helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs, businesses, creative agencies, and nonprofits build brands, design integrated marketing experiences and create new products/experiences to take their organizations to the next level. She brings 15+ years branding and integrated marketing experience across a variety of top agencies (CP+B, Digitas), Fortune 100 companies (Federated Department Stores, The May Company) and industry-leading clients. Her successful track record includes award-winning work for clients such as Domino's, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, American Express, Vail EpicMix, B-Cycle, Sea to Table, Chocolove, Pangea Organics, Chef's Collaborative (nonprofit) and Snooze. Most recently Sara worked as Chief Marketing Officer/Director of Community for The Kitchen family of restaurants and 501c3 nonprofit founded in Boulder, CO by Kimbal Musk (PayPal) and Hugo Matheson (River Cafe). In this role, she helped create and launch three new businesses/brands in two years and developed the strategy for their national rollout currently underway. Her strategic work for "Broccoli's Extreme Makeover" was featured in this November 2013 NYT magazine cover story by Pulitzer Prize-Winning writer Michael Moss: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/magazine/broccolis-extreme-makeover.html?_r=0
Sara divides her time between Boulder/Denver, CO and Brooklyn, NY and aspires to add Venice, CA to the list of "bubbles" in which she lives and works. Prior to moving to Colorado, Sara served on the board of Slow Food NYC where she helped create and launch the popular "Slow Food Snail of Approval" restaurant, food and drink-rating program.
