The San Diego Food System Alliance is a diverse and inclusive network of leaders in San Diego County—farmers, fishermen, food business owners, workers, organizers, policymakers, funders, and residents—committed to building a food system that works for everyone.
Our Story
Changing the way we grow food, move food, share food, and think about food ultimately changes the way we treat the planet and each other.
The movement to transform our food system in San Diego County was seeded generations ago, when early grassroots initiatives to cultivate food justice and build greater food sovereignty took root in communities deeply impacted by inequities.
In 2011, the San Diego Food System Alliance was created to weave a network of San Diegans passionate about resolving critical food system issues—shrinking agriculture and fishing sectors, increasing barriers to farming, rising food waste and food insecurity, growing challenges for local food businesses—and to offer a space for connection, learning, and sharing.
Since then, the Alliance has gone through a series of evolutions in our staffing, leadership, governance, culture, and the very way we think about how to transform the food system—by cultivating justice, fighting climate change, and building resilience. Changes have been seeded and nourished in our organization that center racial justice, lived experiences, cultural heritage, relationship and trust building, and community leadership.
Most recently, the Alliance brought together over 3,000 people across our region—including essential food and farm workers and residents from communities most impacted by our food system—to create San Diego County Food Vision 2030, a shared vision, plan, and movement to cultivate a healthier, more sustainable, and more just food system in our region. Food Vision 2030 is more than a set of goals, objectives, and strategies about our food system. It is also one of many new seeds planted, from which a powerful movement toward change continues to grow.
There has long been a movement of small farmers, fishermen, workers, organizers, small business owners, and eaters who have worked and self-organized in San Diego County to cultivate justice, fight climate change, and build resilience through food—and it is growing. Our story continues to evolve, but at its core, our work is about supporting this movement, as weavers, community organizers, storytellers, capacity builders, and resource mobilizers. Together with our community, we are building a food system that belongs to all of us.
Our Mission
Our mission is to cultivate a healthy, sustainable, and just food system in San Diego County.
We envision vibrant community food systems rooted in justice and sustainability, where everyone has equitable opportunity to produce, distribute, prepare, serve, and eat nutritional and culturally appropriate food.
In our vision, producers and food workers are treated fairly, sustainable and regenerative practices are prioritized, people are engaged, communities are empowered, and farms, fisheries, and food businesses are thriving and contributing to local economies.
Our Culture
At the San Diego Food System Alliance, we are committed to cultivating a healthy, sustainable, and just food system. To achieve this mission, we recognize the need to eliminate inequities and elevate food sovereignty. Our only path toward healing ourselves and our food system is through a deep commitment to social, environmental, and economic justice for all.
We advocate for self determination*, free from all forms of oppression, systemic or otherwise. We center and uplift those who are most impacted by structural inequities, and actively work for the fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement of those who have been marginalized. We believe there is strength in our collective lived experiences, and power in celebrating our differences while recognizing our interdependence. The health and well being of one is intimately bound to the health and well being of all.
Most importantly, we acknowledge that we cannot achieve justice without racial justice, and that achieving equity requires dismantling racism and repairing the centuries of harm inflicted on Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
*Self-determination refers to each person's ability to have control over their choices and lives, and plays an important role in health and well-being.
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Oppression and exploitation have deep roots in our country, beginning with the genocide of Indigenous people and further with the enslavement of Black people. This legacy, along with centuries of discriminatory policies, has been institutionalized in all aspects of our society and continues to marginalize Black, Indigenous, and people of color, creating significant health disparities, continued exploitation of labor, and barriers to opportunity and ownership. Systemic racism is deeply pervasive and visible across all indicators of success and wellness.
In the food system, healthy food access, food and farm labor, and land and business ownership are all divided along racial lines. Communities of color experience the highest rates of poverty, food insecurity, and diet-related illness. Latinx comprise the majority of farmworkers, receiving extraordinarily low wages, having few labor protections, and working under heavily compromised conditions on a regular basis. And people of color experience significant disparities in farm, business, and land ownership, dramatically limiting opportunities for power and leadership.
We choose to lead with race and focus on achieving racial justice to ensure that the needs and experiences of people of color are prioritized. Race intersects with and amplifies all other forms of oppression; centering race provides us with an opportunity and platform to address other forms of oppression and elevate justice for all. Ultimately, we must transform all aspects of our society to ensure that all people and communities experience liberation.
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Our vision for racial justice in the food system embodies the concept of food sovereignty:
Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies.
In our vision, Black, Indigenous, and people of color lead efforts to imagine and plan for their food system. Their stories, traditions, and knowledge are centered and are heard. They reclaim their health, land, and power.
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Everyone has dignified access to opportunities for health and well-being
Race no longer determines one’s well-being. Opportunities are designed to meet the needs of all people to achieve optimal wellness.
Historical injustices are recognized and rectified
Black, Indigenous, and people of color are respected and valued. Past experiences of oppression and theft are corrected and race-conscious policies are in place.Everyone has dignified access to opportunities for health and well-being.
Resources and wealth are distributed equitably
Power is shared. Change is led by communities. All people have a pathway to positions of leadership, especially people of color.
Interdependence of people and their environment is realized
The world is seen as something that is shared. People coexist with cooperative responsibility for the risks and benefits associated with a fair and just food system.
We recognize that cultivating justice for all is both a process and outcome. It requires practice, patience, and a deep commitment. We are committed to approaching this work with sincerity, humility, and compassion.
Theory of Change
Impact
The Alliance evaluates our impact based on two frameworks: our four pillars of work—Build Networks, Change Policies, Shift Culture, and Increase Capacity—and the ten Objectives of San Diego County Food Vision 2030. As an alliance, we have begun to develop methods for evaluating and sharing our impact in ways that accurately reflect all it takes to transition from an extractive to regenerative food system and economy.
The dominant view has been that only quantifiable and predetermined outcomes can create impact. However, if the crises of the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that complex, systemic, and deeply rooted cultural issues often defy tidy logic models and solutions. As the Alliance invests our collective energy into more relational and emergent approaches to transforming systems, we are learning to seek new indicators and pay attention to transformations that may seem immeasurable.
2022 — Our Year in Review
As 2022 comes to an end, we’re not only proud of our growth this year, we’re humbled by the journey our team, community, and region have taken together in the last decade.
Staff
Board of Directors
Stewardship Committee
Founding Members
A.B. Jones & Co.
Alchemy San Diego
Berry Good Food Foundation
Boochcraft
BrightSide Produce (San Diego State University)
Community Health Improvement Partners
County of San Diego, Health & Human Services Agency
County of San Diego, Land Use and Environment Group
Ecology Artisans
Edible San Diego
Farm to Fork San Diego
Feeding San Diego
Healthy Day Partners
I Love to Glean
Inika Small Earth
International Rescue Committee
Kitchens for Good
Leah's Pantry
Lucky Bolt
Mid-City CAN
Mundo Gardens
Murray Farms
Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center
ProduceGood
Project New Village
San Diego County Farm Bureau
San Diego Food Bank
San Diego Hunger Coalition
Secret Table
Specialty Produce
The Conservation Fund
UC San Diego Center for Community Health
UC San Diego Health Nutrition Services
Victory Gardens San Diego
W.D. Dickinson
Community Members
Dan Demarco
Dwight Detter
Mariah Gayler
Roger Harrington
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli
Chris Marciello
Anchi Mei
Karen Melvin
Jena Thompson Meredith
Scott Murray
Cindy Quinonez
Healy Vigderson
Funders
Funders, Sponsors, and Consulting Clients
Aetna Better Health of California
Alison Royle
Alliance Healthcare Foundation
Angell Foundation
Anonymous Donor Fund at Rancho Santa Fe Foundation
Avila Fund
Belo Family Fund at Jewish Community Foundation
Beyster Foundation for Enterprise Development
Big Green DAO
Boochcraft
Brian and Anna Diaz-Schultz Family Fund at Rancho Santa Fe Foundation
Builder’s Initiative
California Foundations for Stronger Communities
Clever Made
Chase Good Works Employee Giving
City of Carlsbad
City of Encinitas
City of Oceanside
City of Santee
Copley Foundation
County of San Diego CEP Program, District 1
County of San Diego CEP Program, District 5
County of San Diego Department of Public Works
County of San Diego NRP Program, District 4
Day Family Fund at San Diego Foundation
Dr. Bronner’s
EDCO
Ernest Borunda
Feeding San Diego
Food 4 Less/Ralphs
Food and Farm Communications Fund
Globetrotter Foundation
Hattie Ettinger Fund at San Diego Foundation
Hervey Family Fund at San Diego Foundation
Illumina
ImpactFull
Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank
Jen Sherman
Jena Thompson
Jessica Joelson
JP Morgan
Kaiser Permanente
Kasperick Foundation
Legler Benbough Endowment Fund at San Diego Foundation
Mary Abad
Maurice J. Masserini Trust
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Morgan Day
MUFG Union Bank Foundation
MUIR Energy
Nordson Corporation Foundation
Offset Alliance
Panta Rhea Foundation
Parker Foundation
Patagonia
Peter and Kathie Davis
Price Philanthropies
Robin Pruitt
San Diego Community Power
San Diego Foundation
SDG&E Environmental Champions
Self-Help Credit Union
Sharp Health Plan
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co
Solana Center for Environmental Innovation/ RSWA
The Conrad Prebys Foundation
The Conservation Fund
The JEM Project
The Samuel I. & John Henry Fox Foundation
Uplift Accounting
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service
Wallace Center at Winrock International
World Centric
+Box
In-Kind Sponsors
Dr. Bronners
International Mental Health Association
Jimbo’s Naturally
Kashi
Local Scoop
Patagonia Provisions
Perfect Snacks
World Centric