{"id":820,"date":"2020-10-27T14:23:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T18:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2020-10-27T14:23:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T18:23:21","slug":"dress-it-up-dressing-rises-to-the-occasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/dress-it-up-dressing-rises-to-the-occasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Dress It Up Dressing Rises to the Occasion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dress
Photo: Rey Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since its inception eight years ago, Dress It Up Dressing<\/a> has prospered, with founder Sophia Maroon meeting every challenge head on. With all the obstacles that a female-owned small business could face, Maroon never imagined a global pandemic
\nwould be the thing that threatened the company\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

In February, Dress It Up Dressing launched its single serving packets, targeted specifically for the grab-and-go lifestyle, which came to a screeching halt in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety-five percent of our sales were from schools, institutions and salad bars in every Whole Foods in the mid-Atlantic, and all of them closed down,\u201d says Maroon. \u201cWe had invested a fortune and suddenly had no customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of feeling sorry for herself, Maroon decided to partner with local nonprofits, including Chef Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s\u2019 World Central Kitchen and DC Central Kitchen as well as DC Public Schools, to provide healthy meals to those in need.<\/p>\n

By donating the dressing packets or selling them at steeply discounted prices, the Bethesda-based company has provided over 25,000 meals for children, the elderly and first responders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t making money, but we were still making a difference,\u201d says Maroon.<\/p>\n

\"Dress
Photo: Rey Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Dress It Up Dressing couldn\u2019t survive on charitable giving alone. On a whim Maroon applied for Stacy\u2019s Rise Project<\/a>, an initiative started by Stacy\u2019s Pita Chips and PepsiCo dedicated to empowering and supporting female-founded businesses.<\/p>\n

Winners would receive a grant of $10,000, as well as mentoring and support from Stacy\u2019s, Frito-Lay and PepsiCo executives.<\/p>\n

Maroon was at home, running the company from her living room, when she got the call that she was one of 15 businesses out of 1,600 applicants to win a grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids just heard me screaming and crying,\u201d Maroon recalls with a laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t think Stacy\u2019s realized how incredible it was for them to recognize what we\u2019d done and offer us a ladder out of this pit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

ICYMI: Saving Islands Tropical Ice Cream<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Each winning business was connected with two PepsiCo employees who would best fit their needs, and though the grant was a significant financial help, Maroon says she\u2019s benefited most from the executive mentorship she\u2019s received.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working with two incredible women in sales who have experience with startups and can connect me with others who can help my company,\u201d says Maroon.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the winners are separated into peer groups that have weekly topical webinars on everything from ecommerce and diversity to sales and mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us are in competition with one another. We come together to bounce ideas off of one another, give advice and just be there for each other,\u201d says Maroon. \u201cStacy\u2019s Rise has given us a community of people who are in the same boat and can support one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this story appeared in the October-November 2020 issue of Montgomery Magazine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bethesda-based salad dressing company wins grant for female-founded businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,61],"tags":[123],"yoast_head":"\nDress It Up Dressing Rises to the Occasion - Montgomery Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Bethesda-based salad dressing company Dress It Up Dressing wins Stacy's Rise grant for female-founded businesses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/dress-it-up-dressing-rises-to-the-occasion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dress It Up Dressing Rises to the Occasion - Montgomery Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Bethesda-based salad dressing company Dress It Up Dressing wins Stacy's Rise grant for female-founded businesses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/dress-it-up-dressing-rises-to-the-occasion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Montgomery Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-27T18:23:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/untitled-7693-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1709\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Beecher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Beecher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/dress-it-up-dressing-rises-to-the-occasion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/dress-it-up-dressing-rises-to-the-occasion\/\",\"name\":\"Dress It Up Dressing Rises to the Occasion - 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