Record drought decimated the Midwestern food harvest last summer. Superstorm Sandy caught New York and New Jersey off-guard. Climate change isn’t just an abstract, future possibility. It’s our current reality, and we need to be prepared.

Here in the Bay Area, we’ve rejected the gloom and doom mentality. Instead, we’re taking proactive steps now to make our communities more resilient in the face of climate instability. San Francisco is often regarded as a food mecca, yet many in the city cannot eat healthy, local food purchased near home. Known as food deserts, instead of healthy local food, there are liquor stores and fast food.

In recent years, city leaders like Gavin Newsom and David Chiu led a steady drumbeat of policy change to advance San Francisco’s role in providing land and resources for urban agriculture. With this in mind, The San Francisco Foundation updated our Environment Program funding guidelines last summer to reflect a climate resilience framework, with a focus on food access for low-income people and communities of color. On the heels of this, The San Francisco Foundation applied for and received three-year matching funds from the Convergence Innovation Fund to launch the Healthy Food for All initiative.

Through this effort, we will partner with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which will offer up two 6,000-square-foot sites for food growing in the Bayview and the Excelsior. People’s Grocery will ensure a community-driven process to determine how to use the sites. Greenbelt Alliance, SAGE, and American Farmland Trust will then develop a regional business plan and investment strategy for local food that elevates the economic development opportunities for vulnerable communities. We will train and invest in neighborhood leaders. Over the years, we will tap into the expertise and know-how of 27 other current and former Innovation Fund grantees, craft policy solutions, and share what we learn on a national stage.

These days, First Lady Michelle Obama isn’t the only one talking about healthy, local food. Unfortunately, climate change makes the issue urgent. Now is the time to take bold risks to promote a more resilient region.

Through Healthy Food for All, underutilized sites will be transformed into food hubs for low-income communities and communities of color. This is what community resilience looks like.

Editors note: This guest blog is by Deborah Santana (pictured above in the middle), who served on our host committee for the Third Annual Women Changing the World Luncheon. Deborah is also founder and CEO of Do A Little, a donor advised fund at The San Francisco Foundation, and vice chair board of trustees, Museum of the African Diaspora.

I grew up in San Francisco, and heard the words of great shape shifters and activists like Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder of the United Farm Workers and President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which fueled my direction in life. Dolores says, “Putting women in positions of power must be at the top of our agendas.”

The San Francisco Foundation has been doing just that for 65 years.

Today’s Women Changing the World  luncheon showed the power of women’s philanthropy through the words of CEO Sandra R. Hernandez, M.D., and by highlighting the work of Nikki Henderson, Executive Director of People’s Grocery, and Kirsten Saenz Tobey, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Revolution Foods.

In the elegant Julia Morgan Ballroom, over 300 of us listened as Nikki said, “People in LA have work, and are models; have work, and are actors. People in San Francisco have work, and are activists.” I cheered! I agree that the Bay Area is home to a strong population of people who care about access to equitable healthcare, the arts, our environment, immigration rights, and housing for people of all incomes. We are also passionate about the quality of our food. In my 20′s, I opened a vegetarian restaurant on Church and Market Streets in San Francisco, Dipti Nivas. My mission was to serve the freshest salads, soups, and casseroles, and healthy shakes to nourish everyone who walked through our doors.

Nikki and Kirsten have taken the challenges that prevent access to healthy food for school children, adults, inner city citizens, and those who are ill, and they have provided powerful solutions. As a philanthropist with a donor advised fund at The San Francisco Foundation, I feel honored to receive the positive impact of the Foundation’s connections in the community. I have partnered with the Foundation to host Joia Mukherjee of Partners in Health who spoke about their organization’s work to provide health care to tens of thousands of Haitians. I have worked with Program Officers to identify needs in our local communities and to see how my Do A Little Fund might be most effective. At every juncture of my work with the Foundation, I find staff and advisors who are creating plans and actions to eliminate suffering in our world.

Educating girls is my passion. Kirsten spoke about how Revolution Foods has re-vitalized and revolutionized school meals in nine states and employs over 1,000 people, utilizing local farms and bakeries, and working with school administrations to feed healthy, natural foods to children so they are able to concentrate better and improve their minds.

There is so much work to do in the world, and women have the brilliance and inspiration to provide the passionate leadership that is needed. Thank you San Francisco Foundation for giving us this day of celebration of women leaders.

Learn more about our Women and Girls Fund, an opportunity to invest together in women and girls, and make a greater impact than one donation, one organization, or one grant could make alone. As part of our theme of women making communities healthier by increasing access to healthy food, we asked attendees to recommend a book or cook book by a woman author. The books were made available at the event and we’ve also made the full list of recommendations available for you to download.