Confections

Leah Hammerman

Cheetah, Category Merchandiser – Local & Specialty Products

Leah’s deep love for all things food began at a young age when she prepared weekly Shabbat dinners with her mom. An avid home cook, she still keeps up her Jewish cooking traditions, but now with beautiful California ingredients. Born in New York, Leah followed her nose and palate to the culinarily-bountiful Bay Area in 2017. Her career in the food industry has spanned managing restaurants, marketing F&B products and services, starting Dandelion Chocolate’s wholesale program (where she got her chocolate/confections cred), working on a biodynamic farm, and she now sources local & specialty products for Cheetah, a foodservice distributor. A theme of her diversified experiences is her considerable appreciation for and desire to promote quality foods and the people who grow/make them. A curious student of life, Leah’s motivated by learning and cultivating relationships with passionate food folks.

Christina Skonberg

As the Director of Sustainability & Mission at Simple Mills, Christina leads the company’s strategy to advance human and planetary health through intentional product design and ingredient sourcing partnerships. She brings to the product innovation process a keen eye toward ecosystem health and economic resilience in farming communities, connecting consumer insights with farmer insights to design products that benefit all nodes of the supply system. Prior to Simple Mills, Christina held multiple roles at General Mills, including leading sustainability for Annie’s, Cascadian Farm, and Muir Glen, and managing company-wide regenerative agriculture impact reporting initiatives. While at SCS Global Services, she coordinated the Starbucks responsible coffee sourcing verification program in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. As Director of Operations at the Good Food Foundation, she led production for the Good Food Awards, a national recognition program for leading-edge food businesses committed to positive social and environmental impact. Skonberg holds degrees in Agricultural Science and Brazilian Studies from Brown University, and a MS in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.