Fresno Mission sees more families, seniors seeking hot meals as costs rise

At Fresno Mission’s C.C.’s Kitchen on East Dakota Avenue, volunteers saw more children, seniors and entire families come through for dinner as rent, utilities and gas pushed household budgets to the breaking point.

The kitchen served children and seniors from 4:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., then opened to the general public from 5:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Desmond Camacho, the Mission’s chief development officer, said higher housing costs and monthly bills were making even a simple dinner harder to afford. He said donations had also dipped in recent months, leaving the Mission squeezed between rising demand and fewer resources.

For Tony Brieske and his twin brother Daniel Brieske, the dinner line was part of a longer journey. Both men said they had been homeless and struggling with addiction before finding help through the Mission. Their experience reflected how the kitchen has become more than a place to eat. It has also functioned as a doorway to stability, recovery and other services for people trying to get back on their feet.

The demand carries wider weight in Fresno County, where Feeding America estimated 142,780 people were food insecure in 2020, with a food insecurity rate of 14.4% and an annual food budget shortfall of $76.3 million. The average meal cost in the county was put at $3.32. Fresno EOC’s 2024-2025 community needs assessment said the county’s overall poverty rate was 19%, that 15% of families were below poverty, and that senior poverty stood at 14%, above California’s 11% rate. The need is concentrated in the City of Fresno and in rural communities such as Huron, Mendota and Orange Cove.

City Center, where C.C.’s Kitchen operates at 2025 E. Dakota Ave., was built as a 180,000-square-foot campus for people facing homelessness, domestic abuse, human trafficking and other crises. The original plan called for up to 20 nonprofit organizations and a school onsite, along with residence buildings for as many as 72 families. Fresno Mission leaders said years ago that families were already becoming a larger share of the people they served, and the scene at dinner showed that trend has only deepened.

The Mission now says its G Street location no longer provides daily meals, while free food resources remain available through First Fruits Market and partner food programs. With food services supported by donations from local businesses and individuals, the dinner line at City Center has become a blunt local measure of how inflation and rent pressure are reshaping daily life across Fresno County.