Our Mission

In a world of markups and margins, we stand alone.

Street Cheese has high standards for sourcing, food safety, quality, and sustainability, as we work to have a positive impact on our community.

SOURCING

Street Cheese adheres to the ingredient standards outlined by PCC Community Markets, which means we source cheese made from real ingredients, without the use of artificial growth hormones and antibiotics. The charcuterie we source is made with sustainably raised meat cured by traditional methods. We ask for the ingredient list for every product we bring in, and knowing our producers’ ingredient sourcing and animal husbandry practices is very important to us.

PCC outlined their standards to initiate change and innovation in the supply chain, to drive the growth of organic and sustainable businesses that can supply product for their shelves. While they are a large retailer, they only have a fraction of the market share other companies hold. The only way their standards can make a difference in the supply chain is if other retailers sign on and follow the path PCC paved. The more our business is able to grow, the more we can also drive positive change in the world.

SAFETY

We take food safety seriously and have obtained all of the required permits and licenses to work with ready-to-eat dairy and meats. Since cheese is classified as a “control time/temperature for safety food,” food businesses must operate out of an inspected kitchen in order to process or work with cheese. That means it is actually illegal for a business to work with cheese in a home kitchen, as cottage licensing does not allow licensees to work with cheese unless it is thoroughly cooked.

We are proud members of The Crate, Discover Burien‘s micro-business incubator commissary kitchen. Yet with a shared space comes a shared environment. While we sanitize often, we work right next to bakers in an environment where all of the Big 9 allergens are present.

Since cheese is a living food that is home to communities of mold, yeast, and bacteria, cheesemongers are notorious clean freaks. Our primary job is to ensure the cheese you receive is as the cheesemaker intended it to be, so we sanitize our workspace and tools often with food-safe sanitizers, understand the proper production progressions for working with different types of cheese to avoid contamination, , and observe the correct cold-holding practices for our refrigerated products.

QUALITY

Safe and proper handling is key to honoring the producers who work hard to make the cheese, charcuterie, and accompaniments we sell—and more importantly, to honor the animals whose lives are involved in food production. In addition to educating our customers about proper care at home, we practice what we preach by wrapping most of our cheese in paper and focusing on selling fresh inventory.

Cheesemongers and butchers are similar, with both professions requiring lots of technical training and education. We are constantly practicing and refining our skills, taking advantage of educational opportunities, and seeking out best practices that will allow us to continue offering cheese in the best possible condition.

As Street Cheese grows and we bring on new staff, we look forward to offering them proper training as well as opportunities for continuing education on and off the clock.

SUSTAINABILITY

While we recognize it is impossible to totally eliminate all trash in a retail store, we work to diminish our business’ environmental impact by sourcing biodegradable packaging materials, ensuring the products we sell are free of harmful chemicals and additives, and sourcing locally produced products first, because maintaining a resilient regional food system is the most sustainable way to feed a community.  We also work to educate our customers on how to get the most out of the food we sell. Once we find Street Cheese‘s future brick and mortar location, we look forward to engaging with our community food bank to decrease our food waste and to increase the availability of quality food to all people in our area.

COMMUNITY

We believe community is more than just a place to live or work. We are excited to have engaged and curious customers who love food and talking about it with us. Street Cheese is proud to be part of a vibrant community of small businesses who work together and support one another. We are dedicated to serving a key role in our regional food supply chain, supporting our local producers while keeping money in our neighborhoods. And we are honored to make good cheese accessible to more people in our community. After all, we believe cheese does not have to be fancy.

As a business, Street Cheese must sell product and make money so we can continue meeting the costs of doing business and supporting the producers we work with. We can do that while meeting the needs of our community on a deeper level, creating a space where diverse folks come together around the common language of food. One way we seek to accomplish that is by providing educational opportunities and open events.

As our business grows and continues to play a role in our community, our goals are to:

  • Provide educational opportunities to inspire folks to try new things while driving the local conversation about sustainable and equitable food systems, quality and equality in food access and production, and all of the important conversations about food that keep us up at night.
  • Donate funds, labor, or product to support local, regional, and national community organizations that make our world a better place for all.
  • Start an apprentice cheesemonger program to teach interested folks the trade.
  • Find a way to work with the Cheese Culture Coalition to engage with our local BIPOC communities around cheese. We believe cheese is for everyone!

As Street Cheese grows, we want to make sure we and our employees have equal opportunities for fulfilling and engaging work. That means working for a business that offers good benefits (competitive wages, health insurance, retirement plan, vacation and sick pay, child care) and invests in its workers (financial aid for school, certifications, and travel to conferences and cheese-related events). Rather than trying to find the perfect company to work for that offers all these things, we are going to build it ourselves.

Finally, we believe that there is plenty of room for more cheese in the Seattle area. Across the cheese industry, cheese people are a friendly and welcoming group that believes in the adage, “a rising tide floats all boats.” We hope to encourage more folks in our region to become cheesemongers, and we hope to see a wave of new, independent cheese shops opening around Seattle and Washington. The more folks there are to tell the stories of our cheesemakers, the more opportunity they will have (especially our local cheesemakers!) to get their products to market. This will continue to strengthen our local food system and the resilience of local agriculture, particularly for the small, family farm.