Environmental Mission: "Fresno Metro Ministry focuses on creating healthy people and healthy places. We mostly focus on addressing food insecurity, reducing food waste, and creating livable walkable streets. This manifests itself in the wide array of projects we are working on. Here is a short blurb about each project: Community Gardens & Urban Farms - In areas with a lack of access to grocery stores or healthy food, Fresno Metro partners with other orgs to create and sustain community gardens. This directly provides an avenue for community members to grow healthy, culturally appropriate food, save some money, and stay physically and mentally fit. Food to Share - This project focuses on recovering food that goes uneaten (Fresno unified, grocery stores) and redirecting it back to churches and community centers that conduct food distributions to address immediate hunger. CalFresh Enrollment - conduct outreach and enrollment of community members that might qualify or CalFresh/EBT and other food assistance programs Cooking Matters - teach a nutrition and cooking series to improve healthy eating behaviors, provide resources, and improve individual resilience What's Cooking Fresno - Teach a business development series to community members interested in taking their food business idea and helping them develop it. Better Blackstone - Work with city planners, architects, and property owners to reimagine what Blackstone Avenue could look like. This includes rezoning for multi-use, incorporating residential areas, and improving the walkability of Blackstone. All of our projects focus on creating healthy spaces and/or empowering community members to be healthy and resilient in the face of food insecurity. "

COVID-19 Impact: COVID-19 has already impacted our organization greatly throughout all of our programs: Community Gardens & Urban Farms - Volunteer events have been cancelled and community outreach had to be modified (in person to phone banking, online surveys, etc). Food to Share - All routes were changed with school shutdown. We now recover from schools that giveaway food, which has been tons of food due to the mistrust and fear of COVID-19. Some organizations that distributed food halted operations for the same reason, reducing food access to community members. CalFresh Enrollment - has slowed/stopped due to not being able to meet with enrollees or conduct event outreach. Switched to over the phone. Cooking Matters & what's cooking Fresno - all series and classes for the next month have been cancelled. Better Blackstone - training of interns delayed and all planning meetings switched to phone. COVID-19 has put a tremendous strain on our organization and has made it harder for families to access our resources.

Support Needed: Asking our local community to donate to your company or organization, Sharing FUSD's food giveaway locations and encouraging parents to take advantage of the free food (there is a lot left over which we have to recover).

How To Support: For Donations: https://www.fresnometmin.org/donate.html

Other Support Needed: "For FUSD Food Givaways, sharing this information: ""Thursday, March 19th we will be serving meals every weekday from 9am-11am at these 18 schools sites: Addams ES Ahwahnee MS Columbia ES Computech MS Cooper MS Figarden ES Fort Miller MS Hamilton K-8 Kings Canyon MS Lincoln ES Scandinavian MS Sequoia MS Tehipite MS Tenaya MS Terronez MS Tioga MS Wawona K-8 Yosemite MS Our food is primarily for our students 18 and under - however due to the circumstances we are providing food to anyone that requests it. We are asking that people see our goodwill and do not hoard or take advantage of that generosity to ensure we have enough to feed our children with the highest need."""

Community Assistance: "Yes! Food to Share - Redirecting and adjusting all of our routes and protocols to assist with the new food giveaways, and working with food distribution organizations to ensure proper hygiene is followed to prevent the spread of the virus. CalFresh Enrollment - Assisting with those recently displaced from work to enroll in CalFresh Gardens - Encourage gardeners to continue to grow their own food and maintain social distancing. "