Gary Bye remembers the moment everything started for him. He was volunteering at the Fish Community Food Bank in Kittitas County, Washington, and a little girl with beautiful big brown eyes approached him.
“She said, ‘thank you for bringing me lunch. My mom's gone all day and I get so hungry. And so thank you for bringing me lunch,’” shared Bye. “It was so genuine and so from the heart that it touched me and it moved me. And I realized how significant the summer food service program is for so many kids that really need the food.”
Bye decided to leave his 25-year career to work full time at the food bank. Now, he serves as the director of special programs and runs the summer meals program. He wants to spend the rest of his life making an impact for kids in Kittitas County.
His community looks like it’s straight out of a postcard. The county extends from the Cascade Mountains all the way to the desert by the Columbia River in an area over twice the size of Rhode Island. In some remote parts of the county, hundreds of families struggle to make ends meet, and in the summer, when kids are not receiving school meals, it’s harder to make it to the end of the month.
“In these rural areas, a lot of times, because it's less expensive to live in, it is the kids that really need the food the most that are out in these areas,” explained Bye.
Since the summer of 2023, thanks to new flexibilities from the government for the summer meals program in rural areas, Fish Community Food Bank has been able to distribute a week's worth of meals to families with children. Before this change, children were required to eat each meal on site, which kept many families from making the trip to the meal distribution centers.
The increase in meals served has been exponential. In 2021, before the flexibility was implemented, they only served 11,000 meals to kids during the summer. By 2024, they were serving 36,000 meals to kids.
“We were able to serve more kids by eliminating the need for families to drive to a centralized site. It wasn’t just a logistical win—it was a victory for families who needed this support more than anyone else,” Bye said.
The significant impact of the summer meals program would not be possible without the support from everybody in the community. The food bank has strong relationships with the local schools that know the kids who are in need and help reach out to each parent. Many people from the community also volunteer to support the operations of the summer meal program.
Bye remembers when the fire department from another town in the county came to the food bank eager to help. They knew of a few families in the area that didn’t have transportation or where the parents were working long hours and couldn’t make it to the distribution. The firefighters offered to take these meals to the families.
“Examples like that of working together with other organizations in a rural community are just beautiful in how people can work together to serve the needs that the community has,” Bye shared.
With your support, No Kid Hungry has joined the efforts of these communities to end summer hunger. Our grants supported the purchase of the refrigeration system for a delivery van which is essential to deliver meals to the desertic part of the county where the temperatures in the summer are often over 100 degrees. They were also able to hire staff to supplement the efforts of volunteers in bringing these meals to kids.
Even in the middle of winter, Fish Community Food Bank is already preparing for the 2025 summer, hiring more staff and creating new partnerships with other community organizations.
“We would like to add a couple more sites,” said Bye, explaining how he wants to expand to a community by the Columbia River where families work in apple orchards but live over 30 miles from grocery stores. He also wants to open grab-and-go meals to a community that was recently affected by crime and where parents are reluctant to let their kids eat on-site.
The work continues, and Bye along with the staff and volunteers at the Fish Community Food Bank will not rest until every kid in Kittitas County no longer worries about their next meal.
In a message to the people who donated and supported No Kid Hungry, Bye shared, “I wish you could see the people, the kids that are directly touched by your donation, and look into those big brown eyes when they say, ‘thank you. I get really hungry during the day’... It made a difference in our organization, and I mean literally we were able to triple over the last two years because of your donations. We were able to triple the number of meals that we give out to hungry kids this past summer.”
Together we can make No Kid Hungry a reality in Kittitas County and all over the country. Join us!
Ways You Can Help
- Donate: $1 can help provide 10 meals* for kids. Your support will help us fund meal programs all over the country and help us advocate for policies that will help kids get the meals they need. *Donations help support programs that feed kids; No Kid Hungry does not provide individual meals. Learn more at NoKidHungry.org/OneDollar.
- Speak up for kids: Reach out to your elected officials and ask them to do more to end childhood hunger. Tell your lawmaker to advocate for policies that will help kids get the meals they need.
