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Holistic Wellness Community Food Center for Southwest Fresno
Help Us Feed & Educate the Central Valley
Community Need
Fresno County is in the heart of the most productive agricultural region of the United States, having the highest agricultural sales in the nation according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
In contrast to this abundance, Fresno also has a food insecurity rate of 15.9%–making it one of the 25% of California counties with the highest food insecurity, and the second-worst quartile nationally in Feeding America’s 2023 Map the Meal Gap study.
According to the US Census, Southwest Fresno is a concentration of this, with zip codes containing 21-41% of households with both low incomes and low food access.
In addition to limited access to food, disadvantaged communities in these zip codes and surrounding areas within Fresno County are disproportionately burdened by potential exposures to pollutants, adverse environmental conditions, socioeconomic factors, and the prevalence of certain health conditions that make them more susceptible to pollution. Southwest Fresno County averages in the 87th percentile for CalEnviroScreen 4.0, 75.1 percentile for pollution burden, and 87.1 percentile for average population characteristics.
The Holistic Wellness Community Food Center for Southwest Fresno’s vision of an urban farm, grocery store, and mobile market that would provide these disadvantaged community members with locally grown and raised, culturally appropriate SNAP-eligible foods.
The addition of a shared kitchen and processing facility would shorten the supply chain, acting as a regional hub for small growers and ranchers to be able to lightly process their products, then sell the SNAP-eligible items in the grocery store and mobile market, decreasing food miles and therefore carbon emissions from transportation.
How to Help
Help Us Feed & Educate the Central Valley
To launch this project, first, Genesis 2:9 must start with pilot panels for three surveys:
- Disadvantaged Community Members in Southwest Fresno
- Limited-resource farmers, ranchers, or land stewards in Fresno, Madera, Merced, Kings, and Tulare counties
- Limited-resource small food businesses within disadvantaged communities in Southwest Fresno
Funding Needs
In-Person Outreach
Genesis 2:9 Holistic Herbal Wellness is seeking funding to assist with in-person outreach or in-kind informational booths, flyers, and business cards to share this project and survey community members, small food and farm businesses.
Transportation
Genesis 2:9 Holistic Herbal Wellness is seeking funding to cover transportation costs for in-person events. You can help by providing ridesharing opportunities or covering the cost of a gas card.
Online Awareness
Genesis 2:9 Holistic Herbal Wellness has this website and Instagram with almost 900 followers. Funding assistance with digital marketing advertisements and cross-sharing to your networks is needed.
Help Us Feed the Central Valley
Whether you’re looking for a vendor for an event or a local connection for herbal teas, or want to support our projects, reach out!
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“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground
—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”
Genesis 2:9