What We Fund
Conference Scholarships
One of the premier learning opportunities is to attend the American Cheese Society annual conference. The ACE Foundation helps make that possible each year by awarding scholarships to budding and established cheese industry individuals looking to further their careers and businesses. In addition, we have granted scholarships to individuals to attend the Food Resilience, Access and Equity Conference and the Vermont Artisan Cheese Council Artisan Cheesemakers Winter Conference. Your donations help keep these educational efforts going.
We want to give special thanks to the following:
The Peterson Company Scholarship for BIPOC Advancement
Comté Association Conference Fund
Industry Research & Surveys
To best advocate for cheesemakers with policymakers, we must understand the size and scope of our industry on an ongoing basis as well as the key issues facing us. To that end, we have funded a bi-annual ACS Survey. Past surveys include:
Impact of Covid-19 on the American Cheese Industry
State of the U.S. Artisan and Specialty Cheese Industry Cheesemaker Survey
Educational Webinars
Anyone in this industry will tell you there is always something to learn. From entrepreneurship to the science of cheese, we become better at what we do by investing in ourselves and our own development. But resources are often tight, especially for artisan makers. We have funded a number of webinars available to ACS members for free, including but not limited to:
Monitoring Milk on the Farm
LGBrieTQ: The Cheese Industry Guide to Inclusivity of the LGBTQ+ Community
Retailer Best Practices
Taking Care of Yourself in a World Crisis
What’s the Crunch? Crystals in Cheese
Navigating Third Party Audits
Supporting Equity Work in the Industry
We acknowledge there is work to be done to become an industry inclusive of all those dedicated to a career in cheese. We further agree that we have a responsibility and desire to help create equity in the American specialty cheese industry.
Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) Exam Development
The ACE Foundation funded the development and launch of the Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) Exam to measure a candidate’s mastery of cheese knowledge and best practices since 2012. Since its creation, more than 1200 people have passed the exam and can officially call themselves “Certified Cheese Professionals” thereby conveying to customers and employers alike their competency with cheese and better serving as ambassadors for the cheese industry.