DeKALB, IL – As a member of the Northern Illinois University women's basketball team from 1987-91, no one could stop Lisa Foss. She stands atop the Huskies' career scoring list with 2,500 points, averaging over 20 points per game. A self-professed "gym rat", Foss' drive and hard work set the course of her life post-NIU leading to her food truck venture Your Sister's Tomato in 2016.
"I've always done what I love to do," Foss said. "I came to Northern to play basketball. I was a gym rat. I was always training, so I could never do a lot of the other things I love to do. I always knew that I would do what I love to do."
After NIU, Foss played professionally in Spain and Switzerland before returning to the United States and spending six years with Athletes in Action. She started Your Sister's Tomato with just a love of cooking and the desire to start a business from scratch.
"I just knew that I wanted to do it," she said. "When I get super passionate about something, I can't help but do it. I just had to figure out how to do it. I didn't have any training. I definitely spent hours and hours figuring out how to build my truck. I wanted to have a really good product because it's representing me and who I am so of course I want it to be the best."
So Foss dived in head first, building her first food truck with her brother and taking it out to events which led to bookings for graduation parties, weddings, and anniversaries. Within a year, a second truck was added to the operation. Another big step was made last December when Foss launched Your Sister's Tomato's restaurant in Woodstock, Ill. Over three months later, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Foss to adapt to a new environment in the restaurant industry.
"I didn't think that was going to happen, to open the restaurant. Someone would say 'no one would launch a restaurant. Restaurants are closing all over the place'. You're always going to have challenges, but you follow models that work and create your own spin on that. The food truck was solid and strong, so it was the perfect time to open the restaurant. Shortly after it opened, all this hit. I don't know what a normal season looks like because I've never owned a restaurant before, so I only know what COVID looks like in a restaurant."
The current pandemic has not stopped business for Foss and Your Sister's Tomato. With social distancing guidelines keeping people from going out as much as they used to, Foss is taking the food truck on the road and taking her pizza and the rest of her menu to the people.
"The new thing is that neighborhoods will reach out to us through social media, so we'll go out there and make over 100 pizzas in an hour-and-a-half to two hours. The people love it. They just come up to the truck, grab their pizzas, and take them home. We do that at schools too where teachers who are doing remote learning come out at staggered times."
With all the time and energy that goes into her business, Foss still has time to train the next generation of basketball players. She trains around 20 kids a week in a gym that's right above the restaurant.
"When I bought the building, I said I had to have the gym first," Foss said. "The reason I bought it was I was going to do a restaurant downstairs. This will all be one facility someday so I could have everything here. Sometimes I can't believe that I have it and it all came true, because I've been wanting to do it for so long."
Foss' story shows that with hard work, determination, and passion, one can do anything they put their mind to – whether it be pouring in points on the basketball floor or dishing out pizza to the masses.
