Catholic Charities has been serving low income families throughout the Diocese of Fresno since 1968. Our Food Pantry is our largest program that serves nearly 200,000 individuals every year. Our clientele struggle with food insecurity and food hardship due to a number of challenges. Seasonal and unstable employment along with generational poverty forces our families to choose among survival costs – food, shelter, utilities or medical care. Only 5.6% of those visiting Catholic Charities are homeless which means that 94.4% are families in search of help needed to put food on the table at home. 34% of those served in the last year were under the age of 17 years old.

The Catholic Charities Food Pantry is open Mon-Friday from 8:30am – 3:45 pm and is located at 149 N Fulton Street – in the heart of Lowell Neighborhood.  Through this program, clients are able to receive meal boxes which consist of canned vegetables, pasta, rice, beans, cereal, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, protein and more. It’s enough nutritional food to sustain a family for approximately one week.

Donations are greatly appreciated and very much needed to supplement our Food Pantry. Items needed on a daily basis are canned goods, rice, beans, pasta, tomato sauce, tuna, peanut butter, cereal, and soup.

In addition to the Food Pantry, Catholic Charities operates a once monthly USDA Commodities Program on the second Monday of every month and a once monthly Healthy Neighborhood Market on the fourth Thursday of every month in partnership with Central California Food Bank. There are no eligibility requirements to receive food through the USDA Distribution or Healthy Neighborhood Market.