{"id":43918,"date":"2022-06-22T15:22:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=43918"},"modified":"2022-06-22T15:23:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:23:13","slug":"unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photos courtesy of UNFI<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time of constant consternation over supply and distribution challenges across the board, United Natural Foods, Inc.<\/a> (UNFI) has stepped up its game on the most challenging products: those from small American artisan food makers, particularly perishables. Building on its existing two-year-old program, Cheese & Specialty, American Artisan\u2014made possible by a partnership with Southwest Airlines and the activation of new space in its Pacific Northwest distribution center\u2014UNFI has effectively increased its SKU capacity for artisan cheeses and specialty products. Why is this news? UNFI, based in Providence, Rhode Island, is North America’s largest wholesale distributor of organic, natural, and specialty foods and Whole Foods’ primary supplier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a blind business decision, of course. American specialty products are almost by definition small batch, far flung, and worthy of careful handling. But they are also retailer darlings. The drive of retailers to add exciting new products to their offerings has been heating up for years. And with discovery nearly brought to a halt by COVID-19, UNFI\u2019s direct ship (no warehousing) of some beloved specialty cheeses and accompaniments stands to do well, while also doing good for the producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebekah Baker, ACS CCP runs the program at UNFI. \u201cIt\u2019s important that this works for both the producer and us. These delicate products need special handling,\u201d she says, and points out that category leaders within UNFI including Rachel Perez, Carlos Souffrant, and Karen Sims, who, like Baker, come from the retail or foodservice side of the industry, will be the ones to shape its success in the future. Right now, the program only covers western states, including Hawaii, and in the short term the expansion will simply increase UNFI\u2019s existing footprint in those states, with current producers. But in the long run the company\u2019s plans are to take the program across the country, and add regional producers where appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it help? Does it work? It appears it does for UNFI, otherwise the company wouldn\u2019t be expanding it. Although there are hurdles and competition from local distributors, the program demonstrates a bold intent to reimagine one of the most challenging aspects of food distribution. Plus, I assume that showing up with new offerings from producers such as Jasper Hill Farm, Boxcarr Handmade Cheese, and Savannah Bee\u2014 all of which would embellish any cheese case or deli\u2014together with UNFI\u2019s other offerings to round out a store must be good business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some participating producers, including Indiana\u2019s Capriole, makers of knee-buckling goat cheeses like Wabash Cannonball (I may have once hidden one in the fridge for personal consumption, choosing not to share it\u2026), or Missouri\u2019s Green Dirt Farm, makers of beautiful sheep’s milk cheeses, distribution outside of their immediate locales gives them the opportunity to grow only as fast and far as they wish with UNFI\u2019s distribution muscle\u2014a key objective, according to Baker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may be a long time before this program reaches east coast retailers, or tips any scales, but the fact that someone has an eye on specialty distribution innovation is just great news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Producers in UNFI’s Cheese & Specialty, American Artisan Program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sequatchie Cove Creamery
Nettle Meadow Farm and Artisan Cheese
Green Dirt Farm
Jasper Hill Farm
Boxcarr Handmade Cheese
Salt Spring Island Cheese
Old Chatham Creamery
Capriole Goat Cheese
Cowgirl Creamery
Stepladder Ranch & Creamery
Savannah Bee Company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNFI expands its Cheese & Specialty, American Artisan program to include more small cheesemakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25807,1120,26264,4104,26889,2822,1104,6977,20057,33622,33621,1343,1202,33620],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-43918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-american-artisan-cheese","tag-artisan-cheese","tag-artisan-cheesemakers","tag-boxcarr-handmade-cheese","tag-capriole-goat-cheese","tag-cowgirl-creamery","tag-jasper-hill-farm","tag-nettle-meadow-farm","tag-old-chatham-creamery","tag-salt-spring-island-cheese","tag-savannah-bee-company","tag-sequatchie-cove-creamery","tag-stepladder-creamery","tag-unfi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese\ufffc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UNFI expands its Cheese & Specialty, American Artisan program to include more small cheesemakers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese\ufffc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-22T19:22:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-22T19:23:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"837\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Skinner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephanie Skinner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/\",\"name\":\"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-22T19:22:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-22T19:23:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/0e1076c311d3bd51070a4e0147bb8f07\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg\",\"width\":837,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/0e1076c311d3bd51070a4e0147bb8f07\",\"name\":\"Stephanie Skinner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/860cad32183f964d633f2204f5619b1f\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/stephanie-skinner-headshot-240x240-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/stephanie-skinner-headshot-240x240-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Stephanie Skinner\"},\"description\":\"Former publisher Stephanie Skinner founded culture along with her sister Lassa and cheese expert Kate Arding in 2008. Stephanie was intrigued when Lassa, then a cheesemonger, mentioned that there were no magazines filling the artisan cheese niche.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/stephanie-skinner\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese - culture: the word on cheese","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese\ufffc\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese","og_description":"UNFI expands its Cheese & Specialty, American Artisan program to include more small cheesemakers.","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese\ufffc\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_published_time":"2022-06-22T19:22:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-22T19:23:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":837,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Stephanie Skinner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Stephanie Skinner","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/","name":"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg","datePublished":"2022-06-22T19:22:34+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-22T19:23:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/0e1076c311d3bd51070a4e0147bb8f07"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/119395698_aged_cheese_together_1.jpg","width":837,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/unfi-advances-american-specialty-cheese%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UNFI Advances American Specialty Cheese"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/0e1076c311d3bd51070a4e0147bb8f07","name":"Stephanie Skinner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/860cad32183f964d633f2204f5619b1f","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/stephanie-skinner-headshot-240x240-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/stephanie-skinner-headshot-240x240-96x96.jpg","caption":"Stephanie Skinner"},"description":"Former publisher Stephanie Skinner founded culture along with her sister Lassa and cheese expert Kate Arding in 2008. Stephanie was intrigued when Lassa, then a cheesemonger, mentioned that there were no magazines filling the artisan cheese niche.","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/stephanie-skinner\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43918"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=43918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}