Specialty food brokers for your artisanal business
As specialty food marketing consultants with deep roots in the artisanal cheese community, we cultivate lasting partnerships with passionate producers who, like us, believe that remarkable foods deserve thoughtful representation.
Growth with stability
We know you work hard – probably too hard.
As your specialty food broker, we aim to restore your work-life balance without compromising your product quality or business integrity.
We help shoulder the marketing and sales responsibilities while you focus on crafting exceptional artisanal foods. We recognize the unique challenges specialty food producers face and provide the steady support needed to overcome them.
“Kimberly has built lasting relationships based on mutual success, honest feedback, and dogged advocacy for the producer.
From her practical experience, Kimberly processes a long-term strategic approach that is critical to successfully navigate the American Artisan market today. This is a creative new model for the Artisan community.”
Photo courtesy of Sequatchie Cove Creamery
How our journey began
A unique approach
A few years ago in a diner in South Central PA, we uncovered a truth about artisanal food producers: sales and marketing address only one facet of sustainable growth.
Carrie, a former farmer herself, recognized that comprehensive support would require grant writing expertise to help our clients manage expanding operations and costs.
Meanwhile, Kimberly, with her extensive specialty food sales experience, was drawn to working directly with small cheesemakers and artisans—seeing them as essential contributors to a more sustainable food system and environmental future.
As dedicated cheese professionals, we combined our strengths: Kimberly's market knowledge and sales expertise alongside Carrie's wordsmithing, grant writing, and culinary background.
Together as specialty food marketing consultants, we craft a unique approach that nurtures artisanal businesses through every growth stage – providing tailored support our valued, hardworking producers truly deserve.
Proudly Representing:
Meet your specialty food sales & marketing consultants
Our team is small but mighty, offering the agility that specialty food producers need.
As cheese broker professionals with decades of experience, we customize each partnership to provide a unique concierge service tailored precisely to your requirements.
Unlike larger operations, our boutique approach means we adapt quickly to your changing needs while delivering the personalized attention your artisanal business deserves.
Kimberly Keese: Industry Pioneer
Over three decades of specialty food expertise at the ready.
Kimberly’s journey began as a cheesemonger under the guidance of a Zingerman's Deli alumni, where she discovered her passion for introducing customers to the exquisite tastes and rich history of fine cheeses.
This dedication led her to spearhead the cheese department during Dean & Deluca's initial expansion into the Washington DC metropolitan area, with her expertise recognized through her 1994 induction into the prestigious Guilde Internationale des Fromagers.
Her career evolved into specialty food distribution, where she demonstrated exceptional ability working with multi-location and independent retailers, fine dining restaurants, caterers, and hotels to secure significant sales in competitive markets.
Kimberly has represented renowned producers including Vermont Creamery and Old Chatham Creamery in both regional and national sales—fulfilling her dream of supporting pioneering producers who shaped the American Artisanal Cheese industry.
Kimberly's diverse background as a certified massage practitioner, video production professional, and performing Drag King adds unique perspective to her work as a cheese broker. When not championing artisanal producers, she enjoys harvesting home-grown tomatoes, walking her dog, and indulging her passion as a voracious film lover.
Perrystead Dairy's Yoav Perry and Kimberly
Carrie Megginson: Artisanal Food Business Grant Expert
15+ years in grant writing
Carrie's diverse upbringing across midwest and mid-Atlantic suburbs shaped her comprehensive approach to the food industry. Her career spans roles as retailer, wholesaler, farmer, and chef –experience that translated seamlessly into supporting farm-based producers through strategic specialty food marketing initiatives.
With over fifteen years as a grant writer, Carrie maintains an impressive 100% success rate on six- to seven-figure funding requests for artisanal food businesses. This expertise proves invaluable to cheesemakers and specialty producers seeking sustainable growth pathways.
Her culinary background allows her to develop creative recipes that broaden market appeal for specialty foods, while her writing, editing, and graphic design skills strengthen brand identities for the cheese broker clients we represent.
Now based in Pennsylvania, Carrie remains dedicated to advancing the mission of bringing exceptional artisanal foods to diverse consumers nationwide. Her combination of marketing savvy and grant acquisition expertise provides our clients with unique advantages in a competitive marketplace.
““We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist.””
Highly regarded in the industry as a consummate professional, Kimberly knows her stuff. Her product knowledge is impeccable and she strives for transparency and honesty in all her relationships.