With funding for a major food program in doubt because of the federal shutdown, the city of Fresno is stepping up.

The Fresno City Council is scheduled to vote on contributing $250,000 to the Central California Food Bank next Thursday.

Mayor Jerry Dyer and Councilmember Nelson Esparza are sponsoring the resolution. Esparza said $50,000 will come from his district office.

“The horrifying reality is there are still families on Sunday who will go to the grocery store and find out the hard way that those benefits were not renewed for this month. And that’s truly heartbreaking,” Esparza said Friday.

Esparza said that although it is not a usual City Hall function, the city needed to “step up.” He talked with Dyer at last Thursday’s city council meeting.

“I said we got to do something, we go

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