She has 5 generations of roots in horseradish
Her boss is her dad, and she had to learn the family business from the ground up. Either one of those situations might be enough to drive a young person from the family business.
But not Melissa Gold, the fifth-generation family member to work for Gold Pure Food Products Co. in Hempstead.
"I am very lucky that I have a really great relationship with my father," says Gold, 27, who is executive coordinator of production at the company most famous for its horseradish.
The company is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. It was founded during the Depression by Gold's great-grandmother in Flatbush. In 1993, it relocated to Hempstead - Hemlock Street, which was later changed to Brooklyn Road to get rid of hemlock's association with a food company and to honor the company's roots.
Although Gold is an executive at the company, she apparently isn't fixated on titles because when first asked hers, she had to think about what it was. She said the coordinator's title came closest to describing what she does.
Unlike many children of small-business owners, Gold said she knew at a very young age that she wanted to work in the family business. When she was about 10 and school was out, she often begged her mother to let her tag along to the office with her dad. Her mother's one condition was that Gold make her bed before heading out. Not wanting to risk being left behind, Gold said she figured out a way to wake up in an instantly made-up bed. "I would sleep on top of the cover so I wouldn't have to worry about it," she said.
In college her studies reflected her interest in business. Gold majored in food service and hospitality management at Syracuse University, with a minor in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises.
And Gold, who commutes from Manhattan, is the only one of the family's fifth-generation members to work at the company. Her sister, Fara, 29, is a prosecutor in Florida. And none of the 10 cousins in Gold's age range work at the company.
She didn't join the company with an executive position. Though she now oversees about 70 employees, Gold at one time worked the line putting bottles on conveyor belts.
Her father, Steven, who runs the company with his brother, Marc and their cousins, insisted she learn the business from the ground up.
And though she is educated, Gold considers the entry-level experience invaluable. "You learn so much in college, but there is nothing like a hands-on experience," she said.
--CARRIE MASON-DRAFFEN