FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — As the clock winds down on 2025, local organizations say the demand for donations is up.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people have said something along the lines of like, hey, unfortunately, this month, bills are increasing. Our utilities have increased. The cost of living just increased,” said Fresno Mission City Center Chief Development Officer Desmond Camacho.<\/p>\n
Camacho invited us into the City Center’s kitchen, w here the shortages were on full display.<\/p>\n
Volunteers were making vegetarian lasagna, due to the rising costs of meat.<\/p>\n
“Right now, the hardest hit area is within our protein or even just our food ministry, that has taken a turn to where we’re not able to go and provide the, say, the beef or the chicken as many meals as we hope,” Camacho explained.<\/p>\n
Camacho tells us the City Center makes 30-percent of its annual budget in the month of December alone.<\/p>\n
One of its vital partners, the Central California Food Bank, is also feeling the squeeze.<\/p>\n
“We have some of the best supporters and donors and funders, you know, in the world. They truly care about feeding our neighbors in need. But it’s really a different trend that we’ve seen this year,” said Director of Development Chanel Ruiz-Mendez.<\/p>\n
Serving people from Madera County down to Kern County, Ruiz-Mendez tells us donations are what make it more manageable.<\/p>\n
“For every dollar you donate, we can provide up to four meals, and when there’s less donations, that means that we need to take from our general operating funds so the money doesn’t go as far,” she said.<\/p>\n
At the Marjaree Mason Center, Director of Communication Ashlee Wolf says donations are steady, but the need has risen rapidly.<\/p>\n
“We have seen it a big increase since the Christmas holiday of those coming and needing our services here in this facility, as well as well as their 24\/7 helpline, and the level of severity has increased as well,” Wolf said.<\/p>\n
The Marjaree Mason Center<\/a> asks that those interested donate funds or new items, which signify a fresh start for survivors.<\/p>\n Both the City Center<\/a> and Central California Food Bank<\/a> welcome monetary donations, and also offer several volunteer opportunities.<\/p>\n Information on how you can get involved can be found on each organization’s website.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — As the clock winds down on 2025, local organizations say the demand for donations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[61731,112,114,113,61730,294],"class_list":{"0":"post-115764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-61731","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news","12":"tag-local-organizations-report-a-drop-in-donations","13":"tag-timely"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}