Our History

Lori Davis founded Sanzuma in Marin County in 2012. As a result of generous donations, Sanzuma began by delivering solar ovens to small villages in remote regions of Guatemala, El Salvador,  Costa Rica, and Mexico. In fact, the name "Sanzuma" is based on our two initial locations: San Rafael, California, and Montezuma, Costa Rica. San + Zuma = Sanzuma.  

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These ovens, allowed villagers to cook food without cutting down trees for wood, make income, and purify their water -- All without electricity or propane!  Their forests would stay intact, and they would not have lung problems and burns from cooking over a smokey fire. As we expanded our solar oven program to other villages, we saw an urgent need for a basic, sustainable healthy food system paired with nutrition education.  

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Being true to Sanzuma's motto of, "Your health should not be a reflection of your economic status”, we took a closer look and found the same challenges existed in Marin County. Thus, we began developing our School Farm-to-Cafeteria program. Since 2013 we have converted many existing school gardens into producing farms, taught thousands of nutrition classes while educating the students and their families how to grow their own food. The bounty from the gardens is then processed through the San Rafael City School lunch program for their school meal program, donated to families in-need or sold to local restaurants This is all done through an environmental lens.

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Fast forward to 2023, Sanzuma started working directly with local farmers assisting them in selling their produce to large organization as well as, teaching the buyers how to purchase locally, This has not only been an exciting program for Sanzuma but very successful. We are currently partnering with state funded preschools, homeless shelters, senior meal programs, and local caterers. Sanzuma is proud to be making a difference.