Press Release: Brighter Bites Receives $100,000 Grant from Cigna Foundation

Houston, TX (January 30, 2020) – Brighter Bites received a $100,000 grant from the Cigna Foundation through its Healthier Kids For Our FutureSM initiative. Brighter Bites provides free fresh produce in underserved communities around the U.S. with the goal of changing behavior among children and their families to prevent obesity and achieve long-term health.

The six-figure grant will fund ongoing program implementation across Brighter Bites’ six current markets — Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, and Southwest Florida — as well as key strategic capacity building initiatives to help the organization scale its impact and expand more rapidly and efficiently. This school year, Brighter Bites has enrolled nearly 105,000 people into the program, and in the 2020-2021 school year there will be an anticipated 141,300.

“Expanding access to and consumption of produce is a critical component of any effort to prevent diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity,” said Brighter Bites CEO Rich Dachman. “We are grateful to the Cigna Foundation for its partnership, which will help Brighter Bites expand access to fresh produce and nutrition education to tens of thousands of families nationwide, and address social determinants of health in order to further reduce health disparities.”

Two major barriers to healthy eating are price and time. Brighter Bites is mitigating these barriers by meeting families where they are and giving them a ‘free trial’ to practice healthy behaviors. 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. Each week families and teachers participating in Brighter Bites receive two bags containing approximately 50 servings of eight to 12 different fresh produce items along with the nutritional educational materials.

“Giving a child healthy food does far more than provide them with essential nutrition today. It provides them with a sense of security, and supports their future health, well-being and development, and that is foundational to our multi-year Healthier Kids For Our Future initiative,” said Susan Stith, executive director of the Cigna Foundation. “We are proud to support Brighter Bites and applaud the great work they do ensuring children and families have access to fresh produce while making nutrition fun.”

Research conducted by a team at UTHealth School of Public Health has found that over the 2018-19 school year, 98% of parents reported their family ate more fruits and vegetables while participating in the program, with 96% of those saying they were able to maintain that increased consumption after the BB season ended. The team also found that two years after participating in the program, an average Brighter Bites family consumes 19 additional servings of fresh fruits and vegetables over one week. That means families are buying more produce on their own in order to maintain the healthy eating habits they developed through the program.

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 25 million pounds of produce and millions of nutrition education materials to more than 275,000 individuals (including teachers!) in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, and Southwest Florida. The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) named Brighter Bites the winner of the 2018 PHA Impact Award. In 2016, Brighter Bites won the Texas Health Champion Award. To learn more about Brighter Bites visit BrighterBites.org.

About the Cigna Foundation
The Cigna Foundation, established in 1962, is a private foundation funded by contributions from Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) and its subsidiaries. The Cigna Foundation supports organizations sharing its commitment to enhancing the health of individuals and families, and the well-being of their communities, with a special focus on those communities where Cigna employees live and work.

This story was published in the The Packer and the Houston Business Journal.