Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer gets a tour of First Fruits Market at City Center from Central California Food Bank co-CEOs (from left) Kym Dildine and Natalie Caples. Photo by Ben Hensley

On Wednesday, CVS Health Foundation and City Center joined forces by announcing $525,000 in new Health Zones funding, aiming to help boost the efforts of Central California Food Bank’s (CCFB) First Fruits Market located at the Fresno Mission City Center.

First Fruits Market, which opened last year as Fresno’s first free grocery store, is operated by CCFB and aims to provide the city’s least fortunate with healthy, sustainable and culturally appropriate food.

The announcement, which was made during CVS’ Project Health event at City Center, underscored the continued work by the company to improve health conditions and address barriers in health care, in particular, to low-income or unhoused residents.

First Fruits Market’s goal is improving the outcomes of one of the major challenges faced by one in four Fresno County residents  — hunger.

“Our vision for this work is simple – the goal is to center neighbors and create an environment for robust feedback loops to identify and advance priorities on access and resource alignment so they can support themselves on a path to self-sufficiency,” said CCFB co-CEO Natalie Caples.

The partnership was celebrated by Fresno County District 3 Supervisor Sal Quintero and Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, both of whom were given a tour of First Fruits Market prior to the announcement and the beginning of the Project Health screenings, which continued until 1 p.m.

“When you consider the fact that nearly one in four families in Fresno live at or below the poverty line…it is so important that First Fruits Market is available to those people,” Dyer said. “There are people there from various walks of life because we know that people today, as a result of inflation, are struggling.”

Since its opening last September, First Fruits Market’s one-stop-shop model has already impacted lives in the community.

Cristal Hill, part of First Fruits Market’s Workforce Development and a patron of First Fruits Market, said that the assistance provided at First Fruits Market and City Center have helped her not only keep her family fed, but also provide much-needed assistance to others.

“The ability to help out families in need, such as my own — even though I do have a part-time job — it’s a struggle,” Hill said. “Even when I get food here [First Fruits Market] I still give it out to the people around my community as well.”

The additional support from CVS Health Foundation looks to continue to provide resources for families like Hill’s.

In addition to the grants provided to First Fruits Market, CVS’ Project Health Initiative on Wednesday offered free health screenings for a variety of different ailments, ranging from blood pressure and cholesterol to glucose levels and body mass index tests. They also conducted screenings and PHQ-2 assessments to help identify individuals requiring further evaluations for depression.

In 2023, CVS Health hosted 170 Project Health events in California and in doing so, screened nearly 7,000 participants who underwent a combined 24,420 screenings.