About
The Good Food Awards rely on the expertise of the cheese community to create the tasting, determine judges and set standards for the category. Read on to learn who has been integral to building the category, as well as what the cheese standard are and who will be judging this year.
Committee
Co-ChairsRebekah Baker
Director of Cheese, UNFI
Rebekah Baker has been working in Specialty Cheese for +13 years. The first half of her career was spent in retail working at Pastoral Artisan, Whole Foods, and as Corporate Director of Cheese for Nugget Market. Next, she moved into distribution, as the Category Director of Cheese for Tony’s Fine Foods. Then she moved over to the producer side and worked with Tillamook and Treeline. Presently, she is the national Director of Cheese & Specialty for UNFI. She has served on the board for the California Artisan Cheese Guild and has been an active volunteer with ACS, currently serving as the Scholarship Committee Chair. She received her ACS CCP™ certification in 2014 and her Executive MBA degree in 2019.
Felice Thorpe
Founder, Felice Foods
Felice Thorpe is the owner of a sales consulting company, Felice Foods. She brings a history of building and scaling brands with regional and national product launches. She has served as the president of the California Artisan Cheese Guild, Judge, and Chairperson for the cheese category for the Good Food Awards. Her past experience working for a national specialty foods distributor informs her unique perspective to help craft food brands grow.
Debra Dickerson
Cheese Educator, Cheese Lover & Consultant to Cheesemakers, 3D Cheese
Education has always been a part of sustainable sales growth, and Debra has been connecting cheesemakers and cheese mongers through story telling since 2000. Debra started 3D Cheese and traveled the states building market recognition and sales for emerging cheese producers including Neal’s Yard. Dairy, Jasper Hill Farm, Redwood Hill Farm, Avonlea, and Cowgirl Creamery. Debra is an advocate for positive action taken by dairy to slow climate change, humane animal treatment and the human benefits from animal nutrition. She is a member of the Guild du Fromage, California Artisan Cheese Guild and the American Cheese Society. She is the proud recipient of the American Cheese Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
Doralice Handal
Founder, Denier-Handal Wines & Locals Tasting Room
Felice Thorpe is the owner of a sales consulting company, Felice Foods. She brings a history of building and scaling brands with regional and national product launches. She has served as the president of the California Artisan Cheese Guild, Judge, and Chairperson for the cheese category for the Good Food Awards. Her past experience working for a national specialty foods distributor informs her unique perspective to help craft food brands grow.
Standards
In order to be eligible for a Good Food Award, cheese entries must meet the following standards:
- Made in the USA or US territories.
- Made by the entrant’s own company, with milk from animals raised using good animal husbandry* with access to the outdoors.
- Made without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers on the pastures.
- Made without hormones or sub-therapeutic antibiotics.
- Made with rBGH-free milk.
- Made with sustainable repurposing of byproducts, such as whey, where possible.
- Made with milk from animals fed local, GM-free feed where available. Where it is not, the crafter is invested in being an agent of change towards greater availability, by working with suppliers and local granges, vocalizing their interest in this type of local feed if and when it becomes available.**
- Made with other ingredients, such as rennet, starter cultures, yogurt additions, herbs and washes that are sourced domestically or locally (where possible) and produced without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers and non-GMO.
- Made by a crafter that is an upstanding member of the good food community, committed to equity and inclusion in all levels of their business,*** as exemplified through integrating these practices:
- Offering a diversity, equity, and inclusion training to staff members and/or leadership annually.
- Thoughtfully acknowledging the heritage of culturally-specific food on websites, packaging and/or marketing materials.
- For the small percentage of Good Food community that operates on a significantly larger scale, meeting additional criteria related to board diversity, maternity leave and employment practices.***
*The Good Food Foundation will ask producers to provide The National Dairy FARM Program certification or equivalent documentation of animal care.
**Our intention is that producers make their best efforts to balance the realities of feed supplies with the ideals of responsible and sustainable production methods.
***Check if you are in the 2% of companies meeting the Good Food Foundation definition of large scale, and review the addition criteria on the Rules & Regulations page.
Subcategories
Additionally, cheese entries must fit within one of the following subcategories (vegetarian and/or vegan substitutes are permitted):
- Fresh
- Semi-Soft
- Semi-Hard
- Hard
- Yogurt
2022 Judges
Rebekah Baker
Sales Manager, Tillamook
Colette Hatch
Consultant, Oliver
David Hauss
Sales Manager, Pacific Cheese Company
Amy Mackintosh
Cheese Specialist, Sigonas Farmers Market
Omri Avraham
Cheese Purchaser, The Cheese Board Collective
Iris Williamson
Mission Bay Wine & Cheese, Food Director
Erin Christie
Regional Sales Manager, Fra’Mani Handcrafted Foods
Debra Dickerson
Director of Education & Customer Outreach, Cowgirl Creamery /Tomales Bay Foods
Janet Fletcher
Publisher, Planet Cheese
Jonathan Alexander
Cheesemonger + Wine Buyer, Little Vine
Michelle Sheely
Director of Sales, Three Trees