From the Ground Up
How Fresno is Growing a New Economy Rooted in Care
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA — In the heart of the Central Valley, where long fields stretch toward the Sierras and summer air clings thick with dust and sun, a quieter revolution is taking root. It doesn't announce itself with policy white papers or venture capital buzzwords. It grows from the hands of gardeners, the tools of organizers, and the grit of communities learning to rely on each other.
This is Fresno’s wellbeing economy. It is not a blueprint imposed from above, but a patchwork of people and projects reimagining what prosperity looks like, where relationships matter as much as revenue, and the measure of success is how well a neighborhood feeds itself, sustains its soil, and holds each other through crisis.
Let’s walk the city. Not along its boulevards of fast-food franchises and industrial corridors, but through its community gardens, food forests, and cooperative classrooms. That’s where the new economy lives.
Where the Soil Teaches Us to Share
Behind the Yosemite Village housing development, in a quiet lot once left vacant, a different kind of neighborhood grows. This is Yo’Ville Community Garden & Farm, a lush, evolving experiment in permaculture, food justice, and collective care. What began as a community garden under Fresno Metro Ministry has expanded into an urban farm, greenhouse training center, and educational hub.
Here, rows of kale and herbs are tended not by hired staff, but by neighbors and apprentices. There’s a composting station, hugelkultur beds, and plans for a greenhouse to grow seedlings for the entire city. It’s not uncommon to find volunteers laughing over wheelbarrows or elders explaining how to prune an apricot tree for yield and shade.
This project now anchors the Southwest Fresno Community Food Hub, a transformation initiative supported by Transform Fresno. A new orchard is being planted next door, a food forest meant for public harvest. The intention is bold: not just to grow food, but to restore sovereignty to communities long denied it.
“This land used to feed others for profit,” says a local volunteer. “Now it feeds us, with dignity.”
Nearby, at Inside-Out Community Garden at the Sunset Community Center, the idea of “the commons” is coming alive again. Designed with drought-resistant planting and edible landscaping, the garden blends public art with environmental education. Children wander through native plants. Workshops cover everything from pollinator gardening to emotional resilience.
The language here is consistent: stewardship, restoration, belonging. These are not decorative words. They are daily practices.
Reimagining Ownership and Economic Roots
Fresno’s economy has long been shaped by extraction; of labor, land, and water. But new financial soil is forming, too.
Organizations like Self-Help Federal Credit Union, with a branch in downtown Fresno, offer an alternative to traditional banking. Their model prioritizes community reinvestment, especially for low-income and immigrant families. With services in Spanish and English, and an emphasis on affordable lending, they’re quietly helping families buy homes, launch businesses, and escape predatory debt cycles. Learn more here →
In another corner of the city, Fresno Metro Ministry is piloting cooperative workforce development through its garden and food hub projects. The goal: to train people in regenerative farming, nutrition, and community development, while laying the foundation for cooperative enterprise.
Worker-owned businesses are still few and far between in Fresno. But the groundwork is being laid, literally, with every compost pile turned and every training session held under the summer sun.
Stewarding the Earth, and the Future
It’s hard to talk about Fresno without talking about land. This is farm country. And while industrial agriculture dominates the region, pockets of regeneration are growing stronger.
The Fresno-Madera Sierra Resource Conservation District provides technical support to farmers and ranchers who want to shift to climate-smart practices. From cover crops to water conservation, their work connects conventional agriculture to more sustainable futures.
Meanwhile, local Indigenous leaders continue to push for access, recognition, and stewardship rights, though institutional support remains limited. The land holds long memory, and many are working to ensure its future tells a different story, one rooted in restoration, not removal.
At the community level, efforts like the Lowell Community Garden, another Fresno Metro Ministry project, bring permaculture into the city grid. Here, schoolchildren learn to plant beans alongside pollinator plants. Local families pick produce without asking. In a city with vast food deserts, these spaces feel radical.
Building Equity Through Connection
Fresno’s digital infrastructure is uneven. Many rural and low-income areas still struggle with reliable internet, which became even more urgent during the pandemic. The Digital Inclusion Alliance of Fresno is working to close that gap by advocating for broadband equity, running digital literacy classes, and calling for community-owned networks.
Civic tech itself is still emerging here. Fresno State hosts hackathons, and groups like Bitwise Industries (despite recent turmoil) sparked early momentum around tech training and entrepreneurship for underserved communities. Much of that ecosystem is rebuilding, slowly, from the ground up.
What’s clear is this: people want technology that works for them, not against them. Tools to map resources, organize mutual aid, or plan neighborhoods democratically. The question is no longer whether this will happen, but how, and with whom.
Weaving the Threads of Belonging
Step back and a pattern begins to form. The woman running workshops at the Yo’Ville greenhouse also sits on the planning team for the food hub. A high schooler volunteering at the Sunset garden is applying to study environmental science. A local elder who once worked the fields now teaches composting to children.
These stories are not isolated. They’re interwoven by a shared commitment to care; of land, of neighbor, of future.
And yet, the tapestry is incomplete. There are missing pieces:
Worker co-ops and land trusts are still aspirational.
Repair cafés, tool libraries, and maker spaces are rare.
Indigenous-led economic projects need visibility and support.
But the potential is real. The spirit is already here.
How It Feels to Live Inside This Economy
It feels like walking barefoot through a food forest that didn’t exist five years ago, and watching a kid pick a peach with reverence. It feels like being welcomed to a gardening circle with no pretense or gatekeeping. It feels like learning from someone who was once incarcerated, who now leads a compost workshop with authority and joy.
It feels, in short, like community.
Explore These Real Initiatives
Fresno’s wellbeing economy isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening right now, in sunlit gardens, in lending offices, in compost piles, and classroom corners. It’s not finished, but it’s alive. And it’s growing, from the ground up.