Sanzuma

Lori Davis is the founder and president of Sanzuma, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to healthy food sources for students and their families in the Bay Area’s northern peninsula. 

Lori had a successful career designing kitchens and baths when she developed a desire to make a long-term social and environmental difference in her community and beyond. She always considered herself an environmentalist and sought to minimize the negative impacts of the design and construction process on the environment. Because of this, Lori went back to college in 2009, graduating with scientific honors from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in agrobiodiversity and a minor in cultural food systems. After completing her continued education, Lori developed the idea for a solar oven program in 2012, where ovens were delivered to small villages in remote regions of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico. The ovens enabled villagers to cook food, purify water, and earn an income without relying on wood, electricity, or propane. 

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As the program expanded, she found that similar food system challenges existed in Marin County. Being true to Sanzuma’s mission, “your health should not be a reflection of your economic status,” she turned the organization’s efforts to the development of a Farm-to-Cafeteria program. Since 2013, she led the conversion of many local school gardens into producing farms, pairing this with nutrition classes and educating the students  and their families on growing their own food. 

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Her passion for this organization is equal to her desire to ensure good nutrition is accessible to everyone, regardless of their economic status. This stemmed from losing her entire family to heart disease, including her only sibling. She deeply desires to see her community and have access to and knowledge of healthy foods.

Lori currently resides in Marin with her husband, two dogs, two goats and chickens! On the weekends, you can find her in her home garden, hiking with her herding dogs or cooking delicious meals.

https://www.sanzuma.org/