Photo by Ben Hensley | Community members in need line up for food distribution every Wednesday morning at Cornerstone Community Care’s distribution center on Broadway Street between Calaveras and Stanislaus streets in Fresno.

For more than three decades, Pastor Jim Franklin has seen the face of hunger in the Central Valley. In that time, Cornerstone Community Care has developed programs to meet that challenge.

Franklin, pastor of Cornerstone Community Church, arrived in Fresno 32 years ago and still remembers his first encounter with the true face of need. After being invited to Los Angeles for a food distribution event, he witnessed blocks-long lines of people waiting for donations.

“When they got there all that was left was carrots — they were waiting in line to get a bag of carrots,” he said.

He returned to Fresno with a question: Was that kind of need present here, too?

After reaching out to Operation Blessings, a Huntington Beach-based food distributor, Franklin and his Cornerstone Community Care organization received a semi-truck loaded with groceries with a goal to help some of Fresno’s unhoused and food insecure individuals and families.

The result? Staggering.

Franklin said more than 5,000 people lined up five blocks deep at the church, then located at the corner of Divisadero and Fresno streets.

“I was blown away,” Franklin said. “We produce so much food, but it’s not getting to the people — especially in the inner cities.”

Since then, Cornerstone Community Care has grown from a closet-sized food pantry into a sprawling and multifaceted campus in Downtown Fresno, providing those in need with a number of services ranging from food assistance to youth and other community services and programs.

 

Building the cornerstone

Cornerstone Community Care is a 501(C)(3) separate from Cornerstone Church. But the connection between the two organizations provides an opportunity for members to donate their time — something Franklin says is key to helping the operation squeeze as much assistance out of their food dollars as possible.

“One thing that churches have the ability to do — they not only see the need, but there’s something in our belief system that moves us to say, ‘I’ve got to do something about this,’” he said.

Director Erica Jimenez oversees the Feeding Fresno program, which distributes groceries to hundreds each Wednesday morning. The program also partners with churches and agencies, helping local communities from Firebaugh to Raisin City.

Jimenez said that around 14 deliveries are made to the organization’s 10,000-square-foot facility each month.

Franklin said people are facing tough choices out there.

“These are people having to decide ‘Do I pay the rent, or do I buy food?’” he said. “It’s grandmas; It’s people just having a rough time.”

Inflation, high gas prices and utility costs have shifted the landscape of hunger, but Franklin said that the face of those in need — largely families just struggling to get by — has remained consistent throughout the years.

It runs on the goodwill of others.

“We just have two part-time employees that run this entire warehouse,” he said. “Everything else is volunteer.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization became one of the region’s largest food distributors, helping distribute government food boxes at various sites. They even sent food to New York City during the height of the crisis.

Today, with an increase in need, the organization is expanding its reach beyond just food.

 

Beyond the pantry

In addition to providing food assistance, Cornerstone Community Care hosts several other programs aiding children and the unhoused.

The nonprofit partners with 11 Title 1 schools through Project Student Aid, launched approximately a decade ago, providing backpacks filled with supplies.

Rather than handing them out on the street or at events — a practice that Franklin said showed signs of being taken advantage of — schools now independently identify students most in need of assistance.

The program also provides gifts for schools to use as incentives for performance, attendance and other achievements. It also coordinates food and toy drives for families throughout the holidays. At the end of each year, students are selected by schools and invited to an activity center — this year, the SkyZone trampoline park — for a day of fun they might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience.

In addition to providing backpacks and outings, the nonprofit also gives children opportunities to celebrate the holidays, with districts selecting children to receive Thanksgiving meals for their families and Christmas celebrations.

Another addition to the plethora of services offered by Cornerstone — Randy’s Closet — features a private, store-like space where children from several districts can receive clothing. Families are selected one at a time to provide privacy and dignity.

Cornerstone started Randy’s Closet after seeing the vast need in the school-aged community for clothing assistance.

“We found that one family would rotate their three children’s attendance at school around the one pair of shoes they had,” Franklin said.

For the unhoused population, Cornerstone launched Showers of Hope just over a year ago. Offering hot showers, clean clothes and access to support services, the group helps keep the unhoused population clean, healthy and in good spirits, while at the same time linking them with appropriate rehabilitation, job assistance and other services to help get them on their feet.

“We found that when they take a shower it changes everything,” Franklin said. “We bring them in with a whole team offering hope and encouragement. We’ve seen those lives turn around.”

He added that many volunteers at Cornerstone were once on the receiving end of that same support — former addicts, gang members and those who’ve been incarcerated now help others through the organization.

“They remember — they were there once,” he said.