City Council Extends $40,000 Community Garden Contract Through Mid-2026 — AI-generated illustration
City Council Extends $40,000 Community Garden Contract Through Mid-2026
Fresno City Council approved a $40,000 contract extension with Fresno Metropolitan Ministry on June 26, 2025, continuing the organization’s role managing three city-operated community gardens through June 30, 2026.
The contract covers liaison services at South Peach Community Garden, Al Radka Garden, and Lowell Community Garden — 183 plots across 4.34 acres in Council Districts 3 and 5. Metro Ministry has held the contract since July 2023, when it was the only organization to respond to a city RFP.
Staff recommended the extension as an option built into the original two-year agreement. The city’s 2017 Parks Master Plan references community gardens as spaces to produce locally grown food and create community gathering spaces.
The Breakdown
- The $40,000 contract runs through June 30, 2026.
- Fresno Metro Ministry provides liaison services at three city garden sites totaling 183 plots.
- The original contract, approved in 2023, included options for two one-year extensions — this is the first.
- Metro Ministry was the only organization to respond when the city solicited bids in April 2023.
What This Means for You
Your Council approved this contract extension on June 26, 2025. The organization receiving the contract was the sole bidder when the city issued the original request for proposals in 2023. The staff report does not include a breakdown of deliverables or performance metrics from the first two years of the contract.
What to Watch
At roughly $219 per plot annually, the staff report offers no breakdown of deliverables, no performance metrics from the first two years, and no explanation of what changed between the original contract and this extension. When Metro Ministry was the only bidder in 2023, did staff analyze why no other nonprofits or community organizations competed? The original agreement included a second one-year extension option still available. If Council approves that in 2026 without revisiting the competitive landscape, the city will have funded three consecutive years of garden services through a procurement process that drew one response and no comparison data.
