The Holistic Wellness Community Food Center for Southwest Fresno’s vision of an urban farm, grocery store, and mobile market would provide disadvantaged community members with locally grown and raised, culturally appropriate SNAP-eligible foods.

Fresno County has the highest agricultural sales in the nation. (2022 Census of Agriculture.) In contrast to this abundance, it is also one of the 25% of California counties with the highest food insecurity. (Feeding America’s 2023 Map the Meal Gap.) Southwest Fresno’s disadvantaged communities are a concentration of this, containing zip codes with 21-41% of households that have both low incomes and food access. (2020 US Census)

The first step towards this goal would be to test this hypothesis by gauging community need and interest in the area intended to be served by the Food Center.

In addition, gauging the needs of food and farm businesses when it comes to preparing and processing food.

For farmers, cataloging their current produce varieties and pricing strategies.

For food businesses, measuring the importance of local procurement for their products, and what challenges they experience in doing so.

Lanora will apply these funds towards the research and development of the Holistic Wellness Community Food Center for Southwest Fresno, aiming to utilize the deliverables to apply to additional grants, and as a means for continued crowdfunding for the project.