Sophia shapiro
As a brand that celebrates, encourages, and admires courageous makers, we created this series to endorse the ones that have made taking chances look easy. By subscribing to our newsletter and following along on this page, you’ll get to meet new makers every first of the month, and learn the ins-and-outs of what it takes to make it all happen.
We are proud to introduce Sophia Shapiro, the founder and CEO of SNACKWITH, a snack subscription service that delivers healthy, hand-selected snacks right to your doorstep every month. With a mission to make nutritious food both accessible and exciting, SNACKWITH strives to empower and encourage snack brands and customers alike through each box of goodies. We’ll leave the rest of the snack talk to the expert, Sophia.
Q: Tell us about your business!
A: "SNACKWITH is a healthy customizable snack box. Our boxes are partially customizable by your dietary preferences, food intolerances, and overall snack preferences. We have three different snack box sizes: Mini (6snacks, $11), Standard (13 snacks, $25), and Premium (15 snacks, $50). We also have one time purchase and subscriptions. We’re VERY picky on what snacks go in our boxes. All snacks have to taste better than a 9.5/10 AND have whole food ingredients.
SNACKWITH is more than just a snack box. Our boxes not only contain snacks derived from whole food ingredients, but creates a place for our members to gather and freely express themselves.
Together, we are able to support each other's successes & failures as well as highlight concepts in the mental health space, eating disorder recovery, and female empowerment."
Q: What inspired you to start making?
A: "I was diagnosed with an eating disorder in high school, which contributed to my anxiety and depression. Because no one was really talking about mental health, let alone eating disorders, I thought I was the only one struggling.
Going into college, especially living in a dorm, was really hard. Since there weren't many healthy meal options, I had to resort to healthy pantry-friendly foods to eat in my dorm room. I had no idea healthy snacks were a thing until I started following health & wellness influencers on Instagram and saw that they were eating different healthy snacks - that’s when I was hooked!
I scoured the internet for different snack brands and started storing them in my dorm and eventually started posting them on social media. So many of my friends who followed my account were wanting these snacks because they were also having a hard time eating healthy on their college campus. The only downfall was that there wasn’t one website that sold my favorite brands - so I had to build it.
That’s when I had the idea of building my own healthy snack box company, so that more women can have access to nutritious food that will inspire them to take care of their bodies and mind."
Q: Walk us through your creative process...
A: "I love the creative side to my business. We recently went through a whole rebrand (changed our name, color palette, logo, etc) and it was SO much fun!
Our business is so much more than a snack box, we hold virtual events, partner with influencers and companies, and work with sororities to highlight topics like self-care, intuitive eating, eating disorder recovery, stress management, female entrepreneurship, and so much more. There is so much we can do and because our business is in the very early stages, we can basically do anything we want.
I want SNACKWITH to be that resource for young women who are struggling, need encouragement, or just want to improve their wellbeing. Making sure we’re creating content for that is important, as well as making sure our branding is up to par, including merch.
I honestly don’t know what I would have done without our design team - they’re the most talented women I have had the pleasure of working with. Our social media content, box design, logo, etc is all thanks to them."
Q: What would you say makes your business special?
A: "What makes our business unique is our community. I like to say SNACKWITH is more than just a snack box, we’re a community. This is a community in which each person can honor their own dietary preference or food intolerances, while enjoying food freedom and creating a better relationship with food and their body. In doing so, we’re normalizing the topics of mental health and eating disorder recovery so more people can ask for help and be optimistic about their recovery.
In particular, we host # NOFILTER events twice a year. These events are completely free as we want anyone to go and they’re virtual. We invite bad-ass, female entrepreneurs who openly share about their personal mental health journeys on social media. The panelists vary at every event, but equally inspiring. Our third #NOFILTER event is coming up on May 21st at 5:30pm pst and trust me, you won’t want to miss it!
We also work with sororities across the U.S and host exclusive sisterhood events very similar to the #NOFILTER events. There is still so much more that can be done and that is very exciting!"
Q: What do you see for the future of your business?
A: "Honestly, I’m not exactly sure. We are in the process of creating a 100% customization box so that should be up on our website in a couple of weeks. But there is still so much we can do and so many exciting things ahead. The best way to keep up with everything is by following our instagram @shopsnackwith.
It’s really hard juggling this business and being a full time student so once I’m done with school, there’s going to be SO much change. I’m so excited for the future of SNACKWITH and even more excited to continue the conversations of mental health."
As you follow along through this series, we hope you decide to do the same with our maker of the month on their platforms! To keep up with their making endeavors, here’s where you can find them:
Instagram - @shopsnackwith
Website - snackwith.com
With admiration and curiosity for the people and passion behind businesses, we created our very first series: Meet the Makers. Through these Q&A’s, you can expect to discover new brands, handmade products, and the inspiring makers behind it all on the first of every month.
