In the kitchen of Tree of Life Café and Bakery, alumna Carolyn Ocheltree, also known as “Mama O,” may be fast at work making pies for a catering order. But what she's really doing is restoring lives.

In the late 1980s, Carolyn, a journalism major who graduated in 1983, and her husband, Steve, an accountant who graduated in 1982, became active volunteers with their church, doing a lot of ministry and mentoring work.

As they worked with people coming out of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, they noticed that unemployment was the biggest reason people turned back to old habits, and the couple decided they would be the ones to create a safe zone for people to work while getting back on their feet.

They entered the Downtown Fresno Create Here Business Plan Competition in 2015, hoping it would help them start up their restaurant, where employees would be those coming out of rehabilitation.

Tree of Life didn’t win the competition, but the Ocheltrees did turn their idea into a reality the following year.

Everything in the restaurant is restored and/or locally sourced — from the rustic furniture and artwork in the dining area to the ingredients in the kitchen.

“We don’t want to be a throw-away society,” Carolyn said. “We want to showcase local growers and producers and tell stories through our food. We want people to learn what a great place the San Joaquin Valley is.”

Sitting in “a neat cross section of the city,” the restaurant’s patrons are as diverse as the items on the menu — vegetarian and vegan entrées, breakfasts loaded with bacon and a variety of baked goods. The restaurant also uses its unique space to get people more acquainted with Downtown Fresno, offering cooking classes once a month and hosting community and private events, such as the Fresno firefighters’ Champ Camp fundraiser.

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