ROOM FOR PLENTY, PLENTY OF ROOM: FISH celebrates new warehouse at Bowers Field
Filling row upon row of chairs tucked between orange-and-black metal shelves piled high with cases of canned vegetables, shrink-wrapped pallets of Dole bananas, and cardboard boxes filled with spaghetti donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, community leaders gathered Friday to celebrate FISH Community Food Bank’s new warehouse in Ellensburg.
Gary Bye, interim director of FISH, told the audience of state, county and local representatives of the many years of work that went into completing the approximately 6,400-square-foot warehouse on Elmview Road next to the nonprofit’s existing building at Bowers Field.
“FISH has been working for years to get to this point. We wouldn’t have been able to get here without all of your help and support,” Bye told the crowd of more than three dozen.
Bye pointed out elected officials gathered in the front row and praised their support: U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, Washington’s 8th District lawmaker; Sen. Judy Warnick of the 13th Legislative District; and 13th District Reps. Tom Dent and Alex Ybarra.
Those leaders, Bye said, were some of the first ones to recognize the need for the warehouse and the services that FISH provides.
Schrier helped secure $900,000 in federal funding. And Ybarra went “above and beyond” by getting additional grants, Bye said, including money that paid for refrigerators and freezers so big that someone can drive a forklift inside.
“So often, we’ll get a call from a truck driver or somebody say, ‘Hey, somebody didn’t pick up or want this frozen load or this refrigerated load.’
“And before, we wouldn’t be able to accept it because we didn’t have the capacity. Now we have lots of storage and lots of freezer space,” Bye explained.
Kittitas County also earned kudos for earlier supplying FISH with a building at the county airport.
“We spent two years looking for a place to build, or a home. We couldn’t find anything. And then the county stepped up,” Bye said.
Ellensburg officials also got thanks for their assistance on the grant process.
“Without all of your support, this project would not have been able to happen,” Bye said.
The hard effort was worth it, he said, and Bye took time to acknowledge so much of the heavy lift done by volunteers.
“We here at FISH have over 10 active volunteers for every employee. That is how people’s donation money is able to be stretched so far … because of our amazing volunteers,” Bye said. “So thank you to all of the employees and the volunteers that help to make this happen.”
FISH has seen a significant increase in services over the last three or four years. The nonprofit started the warehouse project in 2022, and the number of pantry visits to the food bank is now three times higher.
“Just in opening this warehouse and having better infrastructure facilities, we are able to host more people. Last year we gave out well over a million pounds of food out of the pantry. Making sure — especially seniors and kids — don’t go hungry,” Bye told the assembled crowd.
“Last year alone, here we hosted over 10,000 pantry visits,” Bye said.
Schrier recalled a visit to FISH during the COVID pandemic, and the discussion that turned to increased need in the community.
“I think most of us thought that afterwards, when things got back to normal, things would just get back to normal,” she said.
“But what we’ve seen is every single year, there’s been more and more need. And this was one of the projects that my office went to bat for, and secured $900,000 of funding,” Schrier said.
She said the new warehouse will help feed “even more people at a time when costs continue to rise and it’s getting harder and harder for families. And there’s so much uncertainty right now.
“And it just feels so good at a time when the other Washington feels so bad, to come here and celebrate with all of you this good that has happened,” Schrier added.
The feel-good project reminded her of the impact from her career as a pediatrician. “Just taking care of people; taking care of kids. That’s what it’s all about,” Schrier said.
Ybarra reminisced a bit, as well. He recalled his first year as a legislator, and when former FISH director Peggy Morache asked him to visit.
He tried to beg off, saying he would not be passing by Ellensburg until late that night. Morache persisted, and said she would still be at FISH’s old location in a church near Central Washington University.
“I got there at 10:30; I was tired,” Ybarra recalled. “She sat me down for an hour and said: ‘We need to help people.’”
“And I was there until 11:30,” Ybarra said, and remembered he didn’t get home for another hour, well past midnight.
He said he learned his lesson.
“I said, ‘OK, I got to help those guys. Or Peggy’s going to call me again,’” Ybarra joked.
But it was clear how much FISH meant to her, the community and the county, he added.
Ybarra also praised the volunteers and the staff at the food bank.
“You guys are the ones doing all the work. We’re just helping a little bit with the funding,” he said.