Temporary mural at Modesto mall honors those who work farms. It’s in a dining area
Vintage Faire Mall has a temporary mural honoring local people who put food and drink on many tables.
It depicts them harvesting tomatoes and almonds, milking a cow and gathering chicken eggs. The vinyl-on-window art will remain for at least six months on a vacant restaurant facade, mall marketing manager Amy MacPhail said Tuesday.
The mural is next to the Apple store and near several other outdoor dining spots. The mall’s parent company, Macerich, created it digitally with input from the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau Foundation and the Modesto Irrigation District.
Partners in the effort gathered for a ribbon-cutting, though the mural has been in place since early November. The Modesto Chamber of Commerce brought its well-traveled giant scissors.
‘’We provide food across the nation and in some cases around the world,” chamber CEO Trish Christensen said. “It’s important that our community overall knows that, and that our next generation coming up also learns that.”
The text on the four panels is sprinkled with Spanish words in recognition of the mostly Latino people on the hired crews.
The panel on the far left is about water: “Agua is life, flowing from our Sierra snowpack through rivers, reservoirs and canals to nourish the orchards, vineyards and fields that feed our community.”
The adjacent panel says in part, “Our farms grow more than comida (food). They grow opportunity.” Another reads, “Hard-working manos (hands) and local farms bring fresh, delicious produce to our tables. There’s contentment in every bite.”
That last phrase borrows from the motto on Modesto’s downtown arch: “Water, wealth, contentment, health.”
Vintage Faire opened in 1977, with a name that evokes wine grapes. That crop is part of its logo along with a shopping bag and a bright sun.
It was about 50 degrees and overcast during Tuesday’s celebration, but that’s part of agriculture, too. MID board President Robert Frobose noted that many tree crops need chilly weather in the off-season to prepare for the next growth cycle.
The mural is on the space that had been the MidiCi pizza restaurant. MacPhail said the mall aims to fill it with another eatery in 2026.
The outdoor dining area just got a Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. The mall has other culinary options there and in the indoor food court.
Stanislaus had an estimated $3.15 billion in gross farm income in 2024, its agricultural commissioner reported in September. It was down 6% from the previous year mainly due to bird flu outbreaks at poultry and egg operations. Even with that, the county remains in the top 10 in California.
The county Farm Bureau began in 1914, made up of landowners. It recently created the foundation to boost public knowledge of food sources, board member Deanna van Klaveren said at the mural event.
She is a co-owner of Generation Growers, which produces plants west of Modesto for retail nurseries.
“We’re really excited about how (the mural) turned out and the information that’s going to be shared with all of these people who pass through,” van Klaveren said.
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 10:04 AM.
