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
ChairTamara Hicks
Co-Owner at Tomales Farmstead Creamery & Daily Driver
Tamara Hicks is the owner of Tomales Farmstead Creamery in Marin County and co-owner of Daily Driver in San Francisco. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Agriculture Institute of Marin and Marin Agriculture Land Trust. As a Clinical Psychologist she is passionate about how to create fair and healthy food systems that are produced in a way that are environmentally friendly, and provide for the economic, emotional and physical wellbeing of everybody in the system, from production to processing to distribution.
Debra Dickerson
Director of Education at Tomales Bay Foods & Cowgirl Creamery
Education has always been a part of sustainable sales growth, and Debra has been talking to cheese buyers and cheese mongers from 2009 to early 2020 with Tomales Bay Foods as Director of Sales. Prior to joining Tomales Bay Foods Debra traveled the country building market recognition for small cheese producers including Neal’s Yard Dairy, Jasper Hill, Redwood Hill, Avonlea, and Cowgirl Creamery.
When Debra is not working with the exceptional team at Tomales Bay Foods, she is explaining to the office dog, Xena, that social distancing will not last forever and the role of Chief Morale Officer is to demonstrate good will and equality for all and is more crucial now than ever.
Join Debra in supporting Victory Cheese, and expanding diversity and advanced job opportunities in the cheese world. She is proud to be co-chairing the Cheese committee with Tamara Hicks for the 2021 awards.
Andi Wandt, Cheesemaker, Tomales Farmstead Creamery/ Point Reyes Farmers Market
Kelly Moore, Sales Account Manager, Tomales Bay Foods
Heather Schoneman, Cheese Department Manager, Oliver’s Market
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, inclusion, and justice in all levels of their business.
*The Good Food Foundation will refer to GAP Level 5 guidelines to define “good animal husbandry” should there be any questions as to eligibility based on this
criterion.
**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.
Subcategories
Additionally, cheese entries must fit within one of the following subcategories:
- Fresh
- Semi-Soft
- Semi-Hard
- Hard
- Yogurt
Judges
Janet Fletcher
Publisher, Planet Cheese
Luciana Villanueva
Cheese Coordinator, Gus's Community Market
Sarah Dvorak
Owner, Mission Cheese
Janet Tarlov
Owner, Canyon Market
Amanda Nguyen
Founder, CEO, Butterand
Brittany Hartwell
Store Director, Palace Market
Joyce Klassen
Head of Marketing, Baratza
Liz Cutler Rubin
Department Head of Alcohol & Cheese, Bi-Rite Market, Divisadero
Amy Sherman
Editor in Chief, The Cheese Professor
Gordon Edgar
Cheesemonger, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
Juliana Uruburu
Retail Director, Market Hall Foods
Windy Dorrestyn
Marketing Director, Penguin Random House