FRESNO, Calif.—Vicente, a man in his early 70s, arrives at the Fresno Mission at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday. By 7 a.m. Wednesday, he’s first in a long line that snakes through the parking lot, onto the sidewalk and around the block.
Like superfans camping out for concert tickets, people bring their folding chairs and huddle under blankets, sometimes for more than 12 hours. But they are not here for a show—they’re lining up for a market where they can get around $250 worth of groceries free of charge.
“I took little naps,” says Vicente, who declined to give his full name, his eyes bright after eight hours in the relative chill of early October. A cabinet maker, he runs his own shop, but work has been slow, and he has a mortgage and two cars to maintain….