News Type: Events

Brighter Bites Board of Directors Gathers in NYC

Posted on January 29, 2019 by -

Members of the Brighter Bites board of directors gathered in New York City this past December. The group attended the New York Produce Show & Conference, where Brighter Bites was a beneficiary of all display produce. Board members later participated in a bagging to help send the donated produce home with our families. Check out photos from the trip below:

Families, board members, and Brighter Bites staff gather together for a picture at a Brighter Bites bagging.

 

Brighter Bites Founder Lisa Helfman introduces Board Members Ben Samuels (left) and Sue Smith (right) to the bagging process.

 

Co-founder Shreela Sharma (left) poses at the New York Produce Show and Conference with board members Sue Smith (center) and Steven Graubart (right).

 

The Brighter Bites board of directors came into town to attend The New York Produce Show and Conference.

 

Board Member Ben Samuels gives Brighter Bites parents a helping hand with bagging some cauliflower.

 

Board Member Sue Smith (left) and Brighter Bites Cofounder Dr. Shreela Sharma (right) help parents bag red potatoes.

SOPHE/Brighter Bites Webinar – Measuring Impact

Posted on September 11, 2018 by -

On Thursday September 13, 2018, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) will host Brighter Bites Co-Founder Dr. Shreela Sharma and Washington, DC Program Director Tara McNerney presenting a live webinar-based deep dive into the data Brighter Bites uses to measure its impact.

Don’t miss this chance to learn the secret of our success! For registration and schedule information, click here.   

 

Dr. Shreela Sharma Participates in PHA Panel

Posted on May 10, 2018 by -

On May 3, 2018, Brighter Bites Co-Founder Dr. Shreela Sharma joined Tammy Reasoner of Open Hand Atlanta, Stacy Taylor of Propel/Fresh EBT, and moderator Paula Reichel of Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) for a panel discussion at the 2018 PHA Summit called “Tipping the Scales – Evidence-Based Strategies to Help All People Eat Better.” The panel discussed the difficulties that low income families face when it comes to healthy eating and how various nonprofits, government programs, and for-profit businesses have emerged to address the issue through innovative programs and technologies that leverage key insights to generate impact.

Congrats on a successful panel, Dr. Sharma!

The Produce Moms Kick Off Food Drive Benefiting Brighter Bites

Posted on May 4, 2018 by -

Brighter Bites is so excited to be the beneficiary of a month-long food drive campaign hosted by The Produce Moms on #GiveHealthy‘s innovative produce drive platform.

The Produce Moms is an organization that educates consumers about fresh produce, introduces them to produce brands, engages the produce industry with consumers in inspiring conversations, and promotes public policy to protect and increase the availability of fresh produce at American schools.

#GiveHealthy is an innovative food drive platform that utilizes crowd-feeding technology to enable the donation of fresh fruits and vegetables rather than canned goods to provide a healthier solution to hunger.

Brighter Bites is thrilled to be working with two organizations so closely aligned with our goals!

For the month of May, you can join our efforts to create communities of health through fresh food by donating to the food drive. Follow this link to visit the #GiveHealthy donation store where you can pick out and purchase healthy food items for Brighter Bites families. Thank you for your support!

What a Weekend!

Posted on April 12, 2018 by -

Brighter Bites is largely known for its produce distribution, nutrition education, and fun food experience during school hours, but we also love to create communities of health on the weekend! This past weekend, Brighter Bites participated in three different events in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, TX.

Houston: Brighter Bites had a great time running a booth at the Pasadena Open Market, a family-friendly event with local vendors, community partners, music, a face painter, clowns, and recreational activities put on by the Pasadena Parks and Recreation Department. We had so much fun handing out recipes, tip sheets, and bananas to market attendees while spreading the Brighter Bites love!

(Pictured below: Molly Martin, Program Manager, Brighter Bites Houston)

Austin: Our Austin, TX team had participated in the 6th Annual Edible Austin Children’s Picnic. This kidcentric event featured live music, storytelling, an imagination station, and yummy bites from local food vendors. We enjoyed playing a few signature Brighter Bites games, teaching kids and parents alike all about eating the rainbow. It was such a fun day!

(Pictured below: Shelby Koebley, Program Coordinator, Brighter Bites Austin)

San Antonio: Brighter Bites was honored over the weekend at the Viva Fresh Expo, a regional trade show hosted by the Texas International Produce Association (TIPA) that brings together produce growers, suppliers, and distributors from the United States and Mexico.

TIPA selected Brighter Bites as the beneficiary of the 2018 Viva Fresh Open, a golf tournament sponsored this year by Bebo Distributing Inc. and Wonderful Citrus, that donates the tournament’s proceeds to a different charity each year. We were thrilled to be honored by TIPA this spring — it means so much to Brighter Bites that the produce industry is recognizing the impact we are making with their fruits and vegetables on families across the country.

(Pictured below from left to right: Maggie Whittington, Program Director, Brighter Bites Austin; Stefanie Cousins, Director of Marketing & Communications, Brighter Bites; Lisa Helfman, Founder, Brighter Bites; Samuel Newman, Executive Director, Brighter Bites)

 

Brighter Bites joins PMA for SXSW

Posted on March 23, 2018 by -

Brighter Bites’ Austin team recently joined our friends from the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) for a special South by Southwest (SXSW) event. PMA hosted a free, Brighter Bites-themed lunch for SXSW attendees, who came to learn more about both organizations and our innovative partnership.

The event kicked off with a simulated bagging experience in which every lunch attendee became a Brighter Bites volunteer, helping us assemble over 50 bags of fresh produce. Each bag contained seven produce items that were later feature ingredients in the brown bag lunches provided to attendees. While bagging, attendees learned about the Brighter Bites three-step formula and our positive impact on health behavior in Austin and across the country.

While assisting volunteers with the bagging process, Founder Lisa Helfman and Executive Director Samuel Newman also helped explain our mission of creating communities of health through fresh food and how we’re meeting this goal by caring deeply for every person our program encounters.

We had a great experience spending the day at SXSW with our friends from PMA. See some of our favorite snaps from the event below!

You can read more about our event and PMA’s other SXSW engagement activities in an article published by The Produce News here.

LUPE Arte and Brighter Bites Team Up for Lunch

Posted on October 7, 2017 by -

Brighter Bites is all about fun food experiences! Wherever we go, we’re always on the lookout for exciting opportunities to share that message. Our Austin team learned that a local nonprofit, LUPE Arte (Latinas Unidas Por El Arte), put together a mother-daughter event to emphasize healthy lifestyle choices and wanted us to join them for some lunchtime fun. Of course we said yes!

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On the day of the event, mom and daughter teams started their mornings with some yoga and nutrition lessons for putting together a healthy plate. At lunchtime, we introduced them to Brighter Bites and the full menu of recipes they would be preparing for lunch.

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We broke the girls up into four teams and put them to work mixing fruits and chopping veggies (with kid-friendly knives, of course). In just 30 minutes, the girls had prepared a full meal for all 50 participants and volunteers!

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So what was on the menu? We started lunch with our yummy Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dip, followed by Stoplight Salad and chicken topped with Mango Tango Salsa. We drank our Freshest Agua Fresca and finished off lunch with some Banana Ice Cream. Quite the meal! Can you believe we fit 13 different fruits and vegetables on one plate?!

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As the girls enjoyed their lunch, Brighter Bites staff and volunteers walked around the tables and talked to the girls about eating the rainbow and how to tell Go, Slow, and Woah foods apart.

This was Brighter Bites’ first hands-on cooking experience, and we can’t wait to do more across all our cities! Thanks to LUPE Arte for putting together such an incredible event and including Brighter Bites at lunchtime! And thanks to all the Brighter Bites volunteers for helping the event run smoothly!!

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Eat. Drink. Give. Vote for Brighter Bites.

Posted on August 9, 2017 by -

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We are ready to “leek” the news! Brighter Bites has been selected as one of four local charities to compete for proceeds at the OKRA Charity Saloon (located at 924 Congress Street in Houston) during the entire month of August!

The proceeds at OKRA have been averaging about $16,000 every month, and all of the funds go to the winning charity — now that’s a lot of cabbage! In order to win, Brighter Bites needs to garner the most votes this month. For each drink or food item purchased, you’ll receive one ticket to vote for one of the four charities selected by OKRA’s members. The charity with the most votes at the end of August receives the proceeds from September. Easy peas-y!

So if you live in Houston, or are coming to visit from out of town, grab some friends and stop on by OKRA for a drink! Just be sure to visit the voting booth to place your tickets in our box!…Don’t worry, you can’t miss it! Our design is bright and anything but mediOKRA!  Look for the booth with the Brighter Bites red, recipes cards, and photo booth props! Let us know you voted by posting a picture on social media with our hashtag #brighterbites!
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Brighter Bites is a Houston-based nonprofit founded in 2012 by two Houston women, Lisa Helfman and Shreela Sharma. The mission of Brighter Bites is to create communities of health through fresh food using our formula: produce distribution + nutrition education + fun food experience. We have distributed nearly 14 million pounds of produce and hundreds of thousands of nutrition education materials to more than 30,000 families in Houston, Dallas, and Austin, TX. 

Farmhouse Delivery Gumbo Cook Off to Benefit Brighter Bites

Posted on February 9, 2017 by -

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Mark your calendars! Farmhouse Delivery’s 5th Annual Fais Do-Do & Gumbo Cook Off is nearly here – $25 at the door for tastes from 10+ different gumbos, Real Ale beer, live Cajun tunes, and more, with all proceeds benefiting us, Brighter Bites!

Did we mention it’s over Mardi Gras weekend? Help us celebrate one of the biggest party holidays of the year with the ultimate gumbo throw down and dancing ’til ya drop – all for a great cause!

Think your roux can outdoux the rest? Email lisa@farmhousedelivery.com for details on how to compete in this year’s Gumbo Cook Off.

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What: 5th Annual Fais Do-Do & Gumbo Cook Off Fundraiser
Who: Presented by Farmhouse Delivery, Benefiting Brighter Bites
When: Saturday, February 25, 2017, 1-5pm
Where: Rain Lily Farm, 914 Shady Lane, Austin, TX 78702
Tickets: $25 at the door

Facebook Event Link