In Sullivan County, where geography, transportation and the cost of living can make access to nutritious food difficult for many families, A Single Bite is working to make sure children and families have more than simply enough to eat. The nonprofit organization is building a community food system centered on nutritious meals, food education and local connections.
Founded in 2019 by Foster Supply Hospitality, A Single Bite began when Sims and Kirsten Foster looked at the health and food-access challenges facing children in their own community and decided they had to do something. Coming from a hospitality background, they asked how they could use what they knew — “food, hospitality, relationships and community” — to help.
Executive Director Audrey Garro and Real Food Education Manager Liz Stretch help lead the organization as its work has grown from food education into a broader effort to feed families, educate young people and strengthen the local food system.
“Today, those pieces work together,” A Single Bite said. “We’re not just responding to hunger; we’re trying to build a community where people have better access to real, nutritious food in the first place.”
Bringing nutritious meals with dignity
Food insecurity in rural Sullivan County can be compounded by low incomes, transportation challenges, limited access to fresh food, and rising food and housing costs. A Single Bite’s countywide Family Meal Program provides free, scratch-made meals to families with children, using local, donated and rescued food whenever possible.
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Prepared in the commercial kitchen at the Catskills Food Hub, the meals are packaged according to family needs and delivered by volunteers throughout the county.
“We’re now producing and delivering more than 1,500 servings a week,” the organization said. Since 2020, A Single Bite has delivered more than 280,000 meals and distributed more than 100,000 pounds of local product.
For A Single Bite, providing food also means providing dignity.
“Because everyone deserves to eat well,” the organization said. “When someone is experiencing food insecurity, the answer shouldn’t simply be whatever food happens to be available.”
The meals are made with nutritious ingredients and prepared as food families would genuinely want to share together.
“There’s something powerful about saying: you matter, your family matters, and you deserve a good meal.”
“There are many moving parts, but at its heart it’s very simple: good food goes into the kitchen, people come together to prepare it, and that food gets directly onto a family’s table.”
One bite can change a perspective
Education is the other major part of A Single Bite’s mission. Through its four-part Real Food Education Program, the organization reaches every seventh grader in Sullivan County each school year — roughly 700 students annually and more than 4,000 different students since 2019.
Seventh grade is an important time for food education, according to the organization. Students are beginning to make more decisions for themselves while remaining open to new experiences and ideas.
Rather than simply hearing a lecture about nutrition, students experience food firsthand. They visit farms, meet farmers, experience professional kitchens and restaurants, try unfamiliar foods and return to the classroom to reflect on what they learned.
“The goal isn’t to tell them what to eat,” A Single Bite said. “It’s to give them knowledge, experiences and positive food memories that they can carry with them.”
The program’s guiding principle is simple: students have to try one bite — “A Single Bite!”
Students have tried foods including beets, trout, venison, squash and kale. One memorable response from a student captured the impact of the experience: “I didn’t know food could be so fancy, delicious, simple, and yet so good for me.”
“Sometimes one bite can completely change the way a young person thinks about food,” the organization said.
A community connected through food
The Catskills Food Hub in Liberty has allowed A Single Bite to expand its work beyond individual programs. Its commercial kitchen, storage, refrigeration, loading and distribution capabilities have increased the organization’s capacity while creating stronger connections among farmers, schools, food pantries and families.
Through Farm-to-School efforts, A Single Bite has helped school food-service directors incorporate more local food into school meals. Through food-pantry partnerships, fresh surplus produce can reach people who need it rather than go to waste.
“A Single Bite couldn’t do this work alone,” the organization said. “Farmers, schools, food pantries and volunteers are absolutely essential.”
The organization describes volunteers as “the connective tissue” of the Family Meal Program, helping package and deliver meals across a large rural county.
“What I love about Sullivan County is that people tend to understand that we’re all connected,” the organization said. “A farmer, a teacher, a chef, a food pantry volunteer and a parent may be doing very different things, but they can all contribute to the same goal: making sure our neighbors have access to good food.”
That spirit is captured in a phrase A Single Bite often returns to: “neighbors feeding neighbors.”
Looking toward the next five to 10 years, the organization hopes to deepen all three parts of its mission — feeding families, educating young people and strengthening the local food system.
Its long-term vision is straightforward: “a community where real, nutritious food is accessible to everyone, and where no child has to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”
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