Philanthropy Spotlight: Berry Good Food Foundation

It all started with Michelle Lerach’s desire to learn how to make goat cheese. Really. But while on sabbatical from her law practice in 2010, an internship on a Sonoma goat farm taught Lerach not just how to tend goats, but the issues in advocacy that relate to sustainable regenerative agriculture. She observed “this sense of community that existed in Sonoma, where everything was surrounded and focused and centered on the farms, the winery, the agricultural region. It was very supportive. You just felt it in every aspect of daily life.” 

Upon her return, she invited all the farmers, chefs, food activists, and food writers that she knew — and some she didn’t — to “sit around a table and talk about food, meet each other and connect with each other, and have micro conversations,” she says, as well as bigger discussions about how to improve the food system for the community at large here in San Diego. That pivotal evening was the genesis of The Berry Good Food Foundation, a nonprofit that connects farmers, chefs, scientists, and the community to make a difference in the industrial food system in San Diego and also in Baja California, as well as advocate for access to healthy food for all.

Roughly 14 years since that first dinner, what The Berry Good Food Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) since 2015, has accomplished is truly astounding. “We’ve given out nearly $100,000 [in total] to 36 schools in San Diego and Baja. We have also led cooking classes serving nearly 300 students. We’ve installed 42 garden beds at six school campuses, 40 instructional hours in garden classrooms, and we’ve distributed hundreds and hundreds of our signature bilingual photosynthesis workbooks for elementary school students, which we’re also translating into Kumeyaay for one of the projects we’re working on on the other side of the border,” says Lerach. 

While she was the one who set the foundation in motion, she credits her all-volunteer board of directors with Berry Good Food’s growth and success. “I’m an ‘idea man’ as it were, and I like to inspire, but I’m not a manager,” says Lerach. “I tend to stay in the ‘lofty’ and the ‘idea’ and the impact of policy and education and knowledge [areas]. And you can’t just do that; you have to be on the ground in the community, with other organizations working for and with them, working for and with other students and student organizations, and really connecting. I credit virtually all of that to everyone else in the organization that I was fortunate enough to somehow bring in.” Credit aside, the nonprofit’s impact has been and continues to be undeniable.

On August 18 from 4 to 7pm, The Berry Good Food Foundation will host its “Seeds for the Future” Party at Julep Venue in San Diego. This mix-and-mingle format event will feature tastings from a host of noted chefs from San Diego and Baja, as well as vendors and a silent auction. Participating chefs include Phillip Esteban of White Rice, Jarrod Moiles of Brickmans at Lakehouse Resort, William Eick of Matsu, Charlie Knowles and Manny Da Luz of Bica, Roy Elam of Donna Jean, Davin Waite of Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub and The Plot, Aidan Owens of Herb and Sea, Ruffo Ibarra of Oryx Restaurante, Alfredo Villanueva of Villa Torel, and Reyna Venegas of Michelin recognized Rancho La Puerta. Proceeds support Berry Good Food’s school garden grant program, which provides funding for garden projects that support healthy food education in San Diego County and Baja California. berrygoodfood.org