Amanda Lacher

About Amanda Lacher

Amanda Lacher is a seasoned food and beverage professional with extensive expertise in restaurant ownership and operations. She is highly knowledgeable about the challenges, regulations, and opportunities within the California hospitality industry. Inspired by pandemic-induced dining trends, Amanda opened PorchBox, a fast-casual American comfort food restaurant designed for take-out and catering in 2021, which she successfully operated for 3 years but closed at the end of the lease term in 2024. Motivated by firsthand experiences of the resource gaps and minimal legal and policy representation for small businesses and underrepresented owners, Amanda has applied to enroll in law school for the fall of 2025. She aims to study a cross-section of food environmental policy, business law, and labor law. Currently, she is a senior technical manager at NutriData, specializing in FDA food labeling law and consulting for large and small packaged food companies, including lab testing and R&D for client’s new product lines. In her free time, Amanda serves on the Board of Directors for the California Restaurant Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the California Restaurant Association. As a young independent restaurant owner, she advocates for representation and policy impacts that are positive for all sectors of the food industry. She advises on the strategic vision for their programming including: • Restaurants Care (a grant program for all CA restaurant workers who face unexpected hardship). We are currently mobilizing our grant program to restaurant workers who lost their homes or employment due to the tragic LA fires. • Relief Grants (a grant program for small-unit restaurants to invest in equipment or staff retention) • The ProStart High School Culinary Program to train the next generation of hospitality workers. Amanda graduated Cum Laude from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in 2020, with a minor in Horticulture.

Experience

1. Senior Technical Manager

   Nutridata

   Jul 2024 — Present · Orange County, CA, US

   NutriData provides regulatory, nutrition, and R&D services for large and small packaged food companies.My responsibilities include:• Auditing client’s food packaging to ensure compliance to FDA/USDA food labeling regulations and laws• Researching, developing, sourcing ingredients, and testing recipes for client’s new product lines and reformulations• Managing, analyzing, and outsourcing lab testing of product samples from clients• Assisting team dieticians in analyzing client recipes to create nutritional panels and statements• Managing 90-100 small and large food & beverage (F&B) clients at a given time in various project stages

Education

• Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

  2016 — 2020