News Type: Milestones

Brighter Bites Named Catalyst For Change Award Finalist

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Christina Blick -

May 3, 2018

Today Brighter Bites was named a finalist in the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) 2018 Catalyst for Change Awards, announced at PHA’s seventh annual Innovating a Healthier Future Summit.

Brighter Bites is proud to be at the forefront of a movement to make healthier choices more accessible to families across the country in order to combat growing rates of childhood obesity in the US. Brighter Bites is a finalist in the PHA Impact Award category, which recognizes groups or individuals who have sparked change at the community level to help innovate a healthier future through measurable impact on populations disproportionately affected by obesity.

We are honored to be selected as a finalist and congratulate our fellow nominees: Bright Horizons Family Solutions, ESSTAR, McLane Company Inc., Mercedes-Benz USA, Oakwood University, The National Fitness Foundation, OPEN – Online Physical Education Network, SuperChefs, and The Walking Classroom Institute.

You can learn more about our nomination here.

Press Release: Brighter Bites Expands to Washington, D.C. and Metro Area

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Christina Blick -

Media Contact:
Stefanie Cousins
Stefanie.Cousins@brighterbites.org
919-360-4156

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington D.C. Area’s Food Bank Teams Up with Nutrition Education Nonprofit to Improve Access to Healthy Food for Students and Their Families

Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Companies Foundation help bring more fresh fruits and vegetables to families in Prince George’s County through a new partnership with Brighter Bites

Washington, D.C. (May 2, 2018) – Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Companies Foundation today announced a partnership with Brighter Bites, a nonprofit organization that helps create communities of health through fresh food, to launch school-based programs designed to increase exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables for families in underserved communities in Prince George’s County, MD.

Nearly 130,000 individuals in Prince George’s County, 22 percent of whom are children, lack consistent access to nutritionally adequate food, according to Feeding America. The new program aims to encourage healthy behaviors by providing low-income children and their families with fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as nutrition education materials, support of in-class health education, and healthy recipes.

“We know that food habits form early, and that those habits can impact health and well-being for life,” said Radha Muthiah, President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank. “We’re committed to working with our community’s schools to get good food – especially fruits and vegetables – into the hands of kids and families, which is why we’re excited by the Brighter Bites model and eager to see the impact that this partnership will have in Prince George’s County and beyond.”

Brighter Bites will run programs this spring and summer that will provide 80,000 pounds of produce and thousands of pieces of nutrition education materials to approximately 500 families and teachers at William Paca Elementary School, Cool Spring Elementary, and selected summer camps in Prince George’s County. Brighter Bites plans to grow its presence to serve even more elementary schools and summer programs in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area in the coming years.

As part of the initiative, Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Companies Foundation will supply thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables, warehousing, and transportation services to support the initiative.

“When we learned that Brighter Bites was coming to the Washington DC area, we knew right away it would be the ideal partnership for The Coastal Companies Foundation,” said Micah Brown, President, East Coast Fresh & Executive Director at The Coastal Companies Foundation. “Brighter Bites’ desire to provide kids and families with access to fresh, healthy food aligns perfectly with our Foundation’s mission to nourish our community. We are excited to see a transformation in the eating habits of the next generation and are thrilled to help make such a powerful impact.”

Since launching in 2012, Brighter Bites has distributed more than 16 million pounds of produce and 100,000s of nutrition education materials to 40,000 families through elementary schools, preschools, and summer camps. Brighter Bites uses a simple formula for introducing healthy lifestyles to families: produce distribution, nutrition education, and a fun food experience that includes sampling a recipe of the week to see just how great produce can taste. Parents and community volunteers pack bags of fresh fruits and veggies for families and teachers to take home each week during three eight-week sessions. Each free two-bag set contains approximately 50 servings of eight to 12 different produce items.

“Local partnerships are critical to the success of our organization and the impact we have on the communities where we work, said Samuel Newman, Executive Director of Brighter Bites. “We could not be happier to be partnering with two of the most trusted organizations in the region.”

Brighter Bites measures the outcomes of its program to determine impact. Research shows the Brighter Bites model provides consistent opportunities for children and their families to practice healthier behaviors in school and at home:

98% of Brighter Bites parents report their children eating more fruits and vegetables while participating in the Brighter Bites program.
Of those, 74% said they maintained that increased level of consumption after Brighter Bites ended.

Children and parents participating in Brighter Bites reported a:

significant increase in the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed;
significant increase in serving more fruits and vegetables as snacks;
two-fold increase in cooking meals from scratch, and a significant increase in eating meals together and serving more produce as part of those meals;
two-fold increase in using nutrition labels to guide grocery purchases;
and a significant decrease in added sugars consumed among children.

Prince George’s County is the sixth Brighter Bites program to launch after Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, and Southwest Florida.

About Brighter Bites:

Brighter Bites is a nonprofit that creates communities of health through fresh food with the goal of changing behavior among children and their families to prevent obesity and achieve long-term health. Brighter Bites is an evidence-based, multi-component elementary school, preschool, and summer camp program that utilizes reliable access to fruits and vegetables, nutrition education, and consistent exposure to recipes and messages that feature fresh food. Since 2012, Brighter Bites has provided more than 16 million pounds of produce and 100,000s of nutrition education materials to more than 40,000 families and teachers in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, and Southwest Florida. To learn more about Brighter Bites visit www.brighterbites.org.

About Capital Area Food Bank

The Capital Area Food Bank is the largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems: chronic undernutrition, heart disease, and obesity. By partnering with 444 community organizations in DC, MD, and VA, as well as delivering food directly into hard to reach areas, the CAFB is helping 540,000 people each year get access to good, healthy food. That’s 12% of our region’s mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and grandparents.

About The Coastal Companies Foundation

In 2012, The Coastal Companies and its operating businesses, Coastal Sunbelt Produce, East Coast Fresh, and Cold Chain Logistics, established a foundation to coordinate all giving. The mission of The Coastal Companies Foundation is to “nourish our community” through nutrition, education, and good corporate citizenship. The Coastal Companies Foundation accomplishes its mission by building community partnerships, sponsoring innovative service projects, and investing in people.

Press Release: Brighter Bites Expands to Southwest Florida

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Christina Blick -

Media Contact:
Stefanie Cousins
Stefanie.Cousins@brighterbites.org
919-360-4156

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Southwest Florida’s Largest Food Bank Teams Up with Nutrition Education Nonprofit to Improve Access to Healthy Food for Students and Their Families

Harry Chapin Food Bank and Lipman Family Farms help bring more fresh fruits and vegetables to families in Collier County through a new partnership with Brighter Bites

Fort Myers (April 26, 2018) – Harry Chapin Food Bank and Lipman Family Farms today announced a partnership with Brighter Bites, a nonprofit organization that helps create communities of health through fresh food, to launch school-based programs designed to increase exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables for families in underserved communities in Southwest Florida.

Nearly 40,000 individuals in Collier County, 36 percent of whom are children, lack consistent access to nutritionally adequate food, according to Feeding America. The new program aims to encourage healthy behaviors by providing low-income children and their families with fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as nutrition education materials, support of in-class health education, and healthy recipes.

“Many hungry families struggle to eat healthy food on a budget. Teaching them how to do that is an important priority for us,” Richard LeBer, president and CEO, Harry Chapin Food Bank said. “That’s why we’re very excited to bring Brighter Bites’ effective programs to Southwest Florida.”

Brighter Bites is running programs this spring and summer that will provide more than 75,000 pounds of produce and thousands of pieces of nutrition education materials to over 600 families and teachers at Lake Trafford Elementary School, Eden Park Elementary School, and the Boys and Girls Club in the Collier County School District. Brighter Bites plans to grow its presence to serve even more elementary schools and summer programs in the greater Southwest Florida region in the coming years.

As part of the initiative, Harry Chapin Food Bank and Lipman Family Farms will donate thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables, warehousing, and transportation services to support the initiative.

“Over the past couple of years, Lipman Family Farms has donated tomatoes to Brighter Bites programs in Houston, Dallas, and Austin, and we’ve been proud of our association with the program and its impact on so many lives,” said Jaime Weisinger, Director of Community Relations and Government Relations, Lipman Family Farms. “When there was an opportunity to bring the program to Southwest Florida, we jumped at the chance. Brighter Bites fits every part of our philanthropy strategy and we’re thrilled to be donating even more produce to Brighter Bites right here in our own backyard.”

98% of Brighter Bites parents report their children eating more fruits and vegetables while participating in the Brighter Bites program.
Of those, 74% said they maintained that increased level of consumption after Brighter Bites ended.

Children and parents participating in Brighter Bites reported a:

significant increase in the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed;
significant increase in serving more fruits and vegetables as snacks;
two-fold increase in cooking meals from scratch, and a significant increase in eating meals together and serving more produce as part of those meals;
two-fold increase in using nutrition labels to guide grocery purchases;
and a significant decrease in added sugars consumed among children.

Southwest Florida is the sixth Brighter Bites program to launch after Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

About Brighter Bites:

Brighter Bites is a nonprofit that creates communities of health through fresh food with the goal of changing behavior among children and their families to prevent obesity and achieve long-term health. Brighter Bites is an evidence-based, multi-component elementary school, preschool, and summer camp program that utilizes reliable access to fruits and vegetables, nutrition education, and consistent exposure to recipes and messages that feature fresh food. Since 2012, Brighter Bites has provided more than 16 million pounds of produce and 100,000s of nutrition education materials to more than 40,000 families and teachers in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, and Southwest Florida. To learn more about Brighter Bites visit www.brighterbites.org.

About Lipman Family Farms

Lipman Family Farms is the largest field tomato grower in North America. From seed to shelf, Lipman’s total supply chain control – research & development, farming, processing, repacking, logistics to marketing – delivers the consistency and quality that has made Lipman Family Farms North America’s most dependable source of fresh tomatoes and vegetables.

About Harry Chapin Food Bank

Founded in 1983, the mission of the Harry Chapin Food Bank is to lead our community in the fight to end hunger. Serving five counties in Southwest Florida: Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties, the food bank rescues, inspects, transports and distributes donated food and other grocery products to more than 150 partner agencies that provide direct services to those in need. Our partner agencies include church food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, disaster relief agencies and more. The food bank provides food for about 28,000 individuals each week. During fiscal year 2016-2017, we distributed 22.3 million pounds of food, which equates to 18.6 million meals, a total value of $37.3 million.

Brighter Bites in the Big Apple

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Christina Blick -

If you’ve been keeping up with Brighter Bites’s Facebook and Instagram feeds, you know that we have some exciting news we’re bursting to share. Drum roll please…

Brighter Bites is in New York City!

Today marks our very first day of distribution in the Big Apple, where we’ll begin serving our tried and true nutrition education program to students and families of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens. Led by our newest Program Director, Melanie Button, the Brighter Bites NYC team will bring the three-step Brighter Bites formula of fresh produce distribution, nutrition education, and a fun food experience to a brand new community.

New York is the fourth city to house Brighter Bites programming (after Houston, Dallas, and Austin) and the first city outside of Texas. This big step for Brighter Bites was taken in collaboration with City Harvest, a New York-based food rescuer and distributor, and D’Arrigo Bros. Co. of New York, a wholesale produce supplier in the New York metro area. This launch coincides with Brighter Bites’ 5th birthday, which we celebrated earlier this week. That’s five years of creating communities of health and over 14 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables distributed.

How ’bout them apples?

Happy 5th Birthday Brighter Bites!

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Christina Blick -

This week’s a biggie for Brighter Bites! Not only are we expanding our programming for the first time outside of Texas (read about our expansion here), but we’re also celebrating Brighter Bites’ 5th birthday.

We’re pretty proud of what Brighter Bites has accomplished in five years. From a seedling of an idea by founders Lisa Helfman and Dr. Shreela Sharma to a full-fledged, research-backed nutrition education program…we’ve come a long way.

Brighter Bites has served over a hundred sites and thousands of students with over 14 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. We’ve partnered with great organizations and produce suppliers to bring about healthy lifestyle changes in the underserved communities of Texas, and now we’re heading to New York City to bring the Brighter Bites formula to even more families. As if all of this wasn’t exciting enough, Brighter Bites isn’t slowing down. Over the next few months, we’ll begin programming in two more brand new cities!

At Brighter Bites, we’re incredibly passionate about the power of fresh food and the creation of communities of health. We’re making friends at all of our schools and sharing our message of health and happiness in all of our cities. We can’t wait to see what the next five years has in store. Happy birthday Brighter Bites!

Sharma Family Establishes Game-changing Endowment in Community Nutrition and Health

Posted on January 26, 2017 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites is thrilled to announce that our co-founder Shreela Sharma and her husband have set up an endowment that will strengthen the link between the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living and Brighter Bites, and, most importantly, establish a pipeline of brain power that will develop the next generation of Brighter Bites scientists!

This story from the UTHealth website describes the endowment and the new Sharma Fellows who will benefit it. We have also pasted the story below:

Paying it forward is something that many people aspire to every day. Faculty member and alumna, Shreela Sharma, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., along with her husband, Vibhu Sharma, have committed $100,000 to establish the Shreela and Vibhu Sharma Endowed Fund for Excellence in Community Nutrition, Health & Wellness at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health. The donation will be matched one-to-one by the Game Changers Fund offered by UTHealth.

Shreela Sharma is an associate professor in the UTHealth School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences and works with the school’s Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living.

“We are grateful to have the support of the Sharmas through this new fellowship,” says Eric Boerwinkle, Ph.D., dean of the School of Public Health. “This support of student academics and research demonstrates the outstanding dedication our faculty members have to the school. Dr. Sharma is already a super star on our faculty, and I look forward to great things from her in the future. Shreela and Vibhu’s gift is a testament to the generosity of the people of Houston to UTHealth and the School of Public Health, in particular.”

The endowment will fund several doctoral-level student fellowships every year. The doctoral fellowships funded by the endowment will be competitive and require a research commitment of at least two semesters (200 hours per semester) from doctoral students selected to be “Sharma Fellows.”

“I went to UTHealth and I had some fantastic experiences and mentors that really made public health important and relevant for me – the whole experience,” says Shreela Sharma about her time as a student at UTHealth School of Public Health where she earned a Ph.D. in 2005. “We always knew that we wanted to give back in any small way possible.”

Sharma, who is known for her work in community nutrition and childhood obesity prevention, says she hopes the fellowship will help the school continue to attract talent at a high level. “We have some fantastic work and research that we’re doing through Brighter Bites, for example. These opportunities would really help students get that ‘public-health-in-action’ experience.”

Shreela Sharma is co-founder of Brighter Bites, alongside Lisa Helfman. This non-profit organization aims to improve eating behavior among predominantly low-income families by introducing them to a routine distribution of fresh produce, along with corresponding education in school and at home, ultimately helping to curb the childhood obesity epidemic in Houston. “Sharma Fellows will be a tremendous asset to the research questions that Brighter Bites is interested in answering” says Lisa Helfman. Sharma’s work at the School of Public Health focuses on Brighter Bites and other community-based nutrition research.

Vibhu Sharma emphasized the economic value that the endowment offers fellows in addition to the experience. Sharma Fellows would not only get compensation for being selected as a fellow, but would also get access to in-state tuition rates. He said he is also interested in the legacy it will leave for his own family. “This would be something in-perpetuity, so it would allow us to have a legacy for the Sharma name,” he says.

He is also excited about continuing to raise awareness in nutrition and public health through this Endowment. “The idea is to highlight what the endowment is going to support, which is research in nutrition and health through programs like Brighter Bites. The outreach and awareness that we would generate from this would hopefully get more people on the healthy bandwagon.” He adds in with a bit of humor, “For people like me, for whom it is easy to jump into a box of Cheetos.”

The endowed fund’s principal investigator is Deanna Hoelscher, Ph.D., R.D., director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living on the School of Public Health’s campus in Austin (one of six campuses across the State of Texas). Hoelscher’s role in the endowment will be to make sure funds are dispersed as soon as they are ready; see that student work is supervised by a faculty member; and promote the fellowship whenever possible.

Hoelscher echoes the Sharmas’ sentiments for attracting top students to the School of Public Health. “Whenever you get funding like this – especially when it’s for a student who is out of state or out of country – that in-state tuition really amplifies the amount of money you get through the fellowship itself.”

This endowment will strengthen the relationship between academia and the non-profit sector. The goal is to improve the nutrition status and health of parents, children and the greater community.

Produce-providing nonprofit on track to expand nationally

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Christina Blick -

Today’s Houston Business Journal featured Lisa Helfman in it’s prestigious Backpage column today. Since the content is password protected, we’ve provided the full text here:

Lisa Helfman’s 5-year-old son declined a piece of cake at a birthday party and asked if there was any fruit instead. Helfman’s family had recently joined a weekly fresh food co-op, and her two sons’ food habits had completely changed. Something just clicked for her.

“I sat down and thought that if I could have this luck in changing my children’s eating habits in my house, could I do the same thing for children in the inner city and underserved communities where there are food deserts?” Helfman said.

She was soon creating and pitching her ideas of what would become Brighter Bites — a program that provides fresh produce to families through their children’s schools. The program works with partners like the University of Texas School of Public Health, the Houston Food Bank and KIPP Schools to supply fresh foods and education to teach sustainable eating habits to low-income families.

“Parents always want to do the right thing, they just don’t always have the tools to do it,” Helfman said. “We empower them to give them a better life.”

Now, more than four years later, Brighter Bites has delivered over 11 million pounds of produce, employs a staff of 42 people, has served over 20,000 families across Houston, Austin and Dallas, and, most importantly to Helfman, 74 percent of the families served say they maintain the healthy eating habits after the program is over.

As big of an undertaking as Brighter Bites is, running a nonprofit is not Helfman’s only gig. She is also director of real estate at H-E-B. Her two positions complement each other in that Helfman, through her work with Brighter Bites, knows where there are food needs, which translates to where H-E-B needs to be.

Helfman, who was one of HBJ’s Women Who Mean Business honorees in 2016, sat down with HBJ to talk expansion and growth of Brighter Bites and H-E-B.

How does Brighter Bites work exactly? We go into schools, and the Houston Food Bank delivers the food to the school. A team made up of my staff and parent volunteers bag produce for parents to take home when they pick up their kids. Every family gets 50 servings of fresh produce with eight to 12 different items per week for eight weeks in the fall, spring and summer. The students are then taught nutrition education in the classroom, and parents are given nutrition handbooks, tip sheets and recipes. Also, when the parents pick up their children and their produce, they participate in a fun food experience where they have a recipe sample that correlates to a difficult item in the bag, like a kale smoothie or a pear pomegranate salad. We’re teaching them how to use the produce in the bag.

You’ve been up and running since fall of 2012. What has been the most rewarding part of Brighter Bites over the years? It’s really amazing to me to have watched an idea grow from just my own boys to affecting thousands of families across Texas to change the way people view. I was this mom that had an idea, and I surrounded myself with all these experts who were passionate about the program like me. I was at Texas Children’s in real estate at the time, and I have my partners at the Houston Food Bank and the University of Texas School of Public Health plus amazing relationships with H-E-B and Sysco now. I’ve been able to watch my dream come true.

Started in Houston, Brighter Bites has expanded to Austin and Dallas. What were the challenges of entering into the new markets? We launched Austin in summer 2015, and Dallas launched in the summer of 2014. I’m from Houston, so I know the community really well, and I was able to get partners and staff really quickly. In Dallas and Austin, we had to find a good team, which we did, but we were in a market we didn’t know. We had to develop new relationships with the food banks and schools there. The thing about Brighter Bites is we aren’t reinventing the wheel; we’re just bringing people together to deliver this product.

Where are you looking to expand next? We are in talks with two cities outside Texas, and hope to launch those in fall 2017. We still have plenty of growth to do in Texas too. We currently have a waiting list of schools, so we also want to expand our service within the cities we are in right now. So, we have a plan to expand to the two cities we are in talks with, and then roll out an expansion plan for the cities we are currently in.

How did you find your way into H-E-B? I met Scott McClelland of H-E-B through the Houston Food Bank, and I pitched him Brighter Bites. I told him I wanted to create so much demand for fresh produce in underserved communities where H-E-B wants to build stores. I wanted to create sustainability and see the families participating in the program have access to purchase fresh produce on their own. H-E-B then came on as a partner and provided the bags for produce pickup.

One day, McClelland offered me a job. I didn’t know anything about the grocery business, but I did know real estate and, because of Brighter Bites, I knew where the needs were.

H-E-B is constantly expanding. How’s business? We’re doing great. We’re now the market share leader in Houston, and that’s exciting. We want to continue building iconic projects to continue that growth, like our partnership with Midway on a mixed-use project at Washington Avenue and Heights Boulevard. We also have two-story stores in Bellaire and the Heights, which is a new concept for us. We are trying to be more progressive inside the Loop, where real estate is expensive. So, I think you’ll be seeing more of these two-story concepts. We really try to tailor the stores to the community. We’re also in major growth mode for our other concept, called Joe V’s, which is a smaller concept that is priced 15 to 20 percent lower than other grocery stores. We’re building our eighth location right now.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

By the Numbers

18,000— Number of families Brighter Bites currently serves

74%— Percentage of families that continued fresh food eating habits after the program

11.3 million— Pounds of food provided

Closer Look: Lisa Helfman

Founder and board chair of Brighter Bites; director of real estate at H-E-B

Education: J.D. from the University of Houston; Bachelor’s from Tulane University

Age: 41

Family: Sons Drew, 11, and Nathan, 8

Hometown: Houston

Neck of the woods: West University

Favorite fresh snack: Apples with chi spice almond butter.

Advice for founding a nonprofit: “Believe in your idea and understand that anything is possible.”

A Letter from Brighter Bites Executive Director Sam Newman

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Christina Blick -

Dear Friends,

One year ago this week I came on board as the Executive Director of this incredible organization, Brighter Bites. I knew that it had considerable momentum and that the challenge before us was significant, but what I didn’t grasp fully was that it would be like jumping aboard a moving airplane (an airplane that we continue to build as we fly it).

Fortunately we have help, and together with our growing list of Partners we made 2016 a very big year, working with more families and in more sites than ever before. Last year alone we distributed more than 5,000,000 pounds of produce to nearly 20,000 families in over 100 sites in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. We hired key staff, developed more healthy recipes than ever, and distributed over 600,000 pieces of nutrition education material.

We start our spring semester programming this week, and I can already tell you that 2017 is going to be even bigger.

A few days ago, the Austin NPR station KUT/90.5 FM began featuring Brighter Bites for its nonprofit focus in January. If you’ve ever wondered what Brighter Bites looks like in action, here’s KUT’s video of our program at the Anita Uphaus Early Childhood Center in Southeast Austin. Give it a look, and consider how you might help us Create a Community of Health through Fresh Food where you live.

– Log volunteer hours at one of our sites in Houston, Dallas, or Austin.
– Partner with us to help reach more families, more communities, and more cities.
– Help us change the eating behaviors of our children so they enhance their vitality.

Brighter Bites would not be where we are today without the ongoing support of our volunteers, partners, collaborators. To that end, a big thank you to Feeding Texas and the food banks with which we work (Houston, North Texas, and Central Texas), H-E-B and Sysco, the CATCH Global Foundation, UTHealth School of Public Health, and all our day-in-day-out compatriots who will help us make 2017 our biggest year yet. Let’s keep a good thing growing – join us.

All the best,

Sam Newman
samuel.newman@brighterbites.org

Humans of Brighter Bites Series to Launch

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites creates communities of health through fresh foods – that’s our mission. However, we tend to focus on the “fresh foods” part when we talk about our programming – how many pounds of fruits and vegetables given to families, the beautiful colors and variety of the produce, etc. This year, we want to spend a little bit more time on the “communities” part of our mission, specifically the individuals that are a part of our Brighter Bites community. These individuals truly are the heart and soul of our organization.

One of our Program Coordinators in Austin, Ellen Orabone, has a knack for connecting to people, talking with them about how food, and listening intently to their stories. Similar to the Humans of New York project (humansofnewyork.com), Ellen began the Humans of Brighter Bites series to capture the stories she heard about people connecting to food in different ways. Each month, we will be sharing the stories that Ellen gathered from Brighter Bites volunteers, participants, teachers, and supporters that make up the Austin Brighter Bites community. We won’t be sharing names – just faces and stories about how people interact with food and what food means to them.

Our first story will roll out this week in three installments. You can read each part here on the blog, or connect with us on Facebook or Instagram.

Brighter Bites Wraps up Best Year Yet!

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Christina Blick -

The year 2016 was big in every way for Brighter Bites. We worked with more families and more sites this year than ever before. We developed more recipes, hired more staff, and collaborated with more partners.

But here’s the big news! In 2016, Brighter Bites provided more produce to more families in one year than ever before! In fact, we distributed more than 5,000,000 pounds of produce to almost 20,000 families across more than 100 sites in Houston, Dallas, and Austin in 2016 alone!

That’s just one piece of news! Brighter Bites distributed more nutrition education materials in 2016 than in years past too — we passed out over 600,000 pieces of nutrition education material to our families this year!

And, Brighter Bites has given out more recipe samples this year than ever before too! Thousands of families have tasted more than 135,000 produce-based, kid-friendly, recipe samples developed and prepared by the Brighter Bites staff in 2016.

Brighter Bites would not be where we are today without the ongoing support of our partners and collaborators. Next year is going to be bigger and better! We can’t wait for 2017!