With an outreach spanning California’s Central Valley and centered within the Westside of Fresno, The Sweet Potato Project II has become a Fresno community institution. Using farming to combat poverty, this West Fresno Family Resource Center project produces sweet potatoes and inspires youth to add value to their harvested crops by inventing new products. From sweet potato shampoo to sweet potato ice cream, countless cohorts have dedicated time and energy to the growth and processing of sweet potatoes.
Utilizing this crop as a project reinforcement tool supports community ingenuity and progressive transitions. The sweet potato has become the source and center of a community mission to serve at-risk youth by providing a farming platform which exposes youth to entrepreneurship and farming. The partnership with California State University, Fresno and Southwest Regional Food Business Center promotes sweet potato production and an investment in future farmers/farms, the coordination team for SWRFBC at CSU Fresno is committed to guiding research and technical assistance applications that enhance value-added product development, inspire collaborations for farming events, and ultimately increase deliverables which build capacity to impact supply chain vulnerabilities.