Keyword/Tag: Capital Area Food Bank

Behind the Scenes: Brighter Bites in Washington, D.C.

Posted on February 25, 2019 by -

In the fall of 2017, Brighter Bites launched in our fifth city. Earlier that summer, we had expanded our program beyond Texas (where we had established programs in Houston, Dallas, and Austin) and to the East Coast, where we began programming in New York City (read all about our NYC program here). After expanding to NYC, the most populous city in the United States, it was exciting to bring Brighter Bites to another iconic city: Washington, D.C.

By operating the Brighter Bites program in D.C. – right in the backyard of congressional representatives – we are provided with a unique opportunity to invite our nation’s policy makers to see our three-part model in person.

Two important partnerships have provided the foundation for success for Brighter Bites in D.C.

The first crucial partnership is with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), a nationall- innovative food bank and the leading champion of hunger relief in the D.C. metro region for decades. Brighter Bites’ Washington, D.C. office is located at the CAFB. “We feel like a part of the Food Bank community,” says Tara McNerney, Washington, D.C.’s Brighter Bites Program Director. “They’ve fully integrated us with the staff, operations, and planning there, and it’s been so helpful to our collaboration!” The CAFB provides half of the produce needed for the Brighter Bites program, as well as storage and transportation of the produce to schools. It was also CAFB that identified Prince George’s County, Maryland (which borders D.C.) as an ideal place for Brighter Bites to launch our D.C. program in its initial years. CAFB’s Hunger Heat Map  identified this area as one of high food insecurity with fewer hunger relief resources flowing to it. Brighter Bites is happy to help bridge that gap!

Pamela Boozer-Strother, District 3 Prince George’s County Public School Board of Education member recently visited a Brighter Bites produce bagging at Cool Spring Elementary School and was highly enthusiastic about the arrival of Brighter Bites to Prince George’s County. She commented that “nutrition is increasingly understood as a very important issue” by the education sector, and that “Brighter Bites is joining a really strong and effective group of nonprofits working with our students.” Read the full interview with Pamela here.

The second crucial partnership for the D.C. Brighter Bites program is with The Coastal Companies Foundation. Its subsidiary, Coastal Sunbelt Produce, is the mid-Atlantic’s leading food service distributor of produce, and they value Brighter Bites’ mission to build long-lasting healthy habits in children and their families. “The fact that the Brighter Bites model is rooted in data that shows quantifiable results really appeals to us” said Jaci Daly, a Coastal buyer and Brighter Bites’ primary liaison to the company. Coastal provides the D.C. program with the other half of our produce. Each week they send four unique produce varieties, items as unusual and exciting as persimmons, celery root, Asian pears, and even edible flowers! The families participating in Brighter Bites in Prince George’s County are exposed to so many new fruits and vegetables thanks to our partnership with Coastal!

In partnership with CAFB and Coastal, Brighter Bites has delivered more than 250,000 pounds of produce to over 1,000 families in Prince George’s County, MD, in the past year. We get feedback about Brighter Bites from our participating families all the time. One parent recently told us, “It’s very helpful to me because I was able to change my eating habits. I’ve become health conscious.” Another said, “For me, it was a great help, because I was able to try thing that I’ve never tried and that I cannot buy.”

Recently CAFB’s new CEO, Radha Muthiah, paid a visit to the state-of-the-art Coastal facility with Tara McNerney, Brighter Bites Program Director. They were excited to discuss with Coastal the plan to expand our programs to even more schools in Prince George’s County next year!

To learn more about our D.C. program, check out the spotlight on our Washington, D.C. team here.

By Tara McNerney, Program Director, Brighter Bites Washington, D.C.

Partner Highlight: Clagett Farm

Posted on October 10, 2018 by -

Brighter Bites is fortunate to partner with so many amazing organizations across the country that share our mission of creating communities of health through fresh food. One such organization is Clagett Farm.

Clagett Farm is a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland run by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a regional nonprofit that seeks to protect the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has developed Clagett Farm into an veritable outdoor classroom where local students have the opportunity to learn the principles of sustainable farming. For the past 20 years, Clagett Farm has partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C. to provide free and reduced-price, fresh produce to people living in poverty and near-poverty in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Our partnership in Washington, D.C. with the Capital Area Food Bank led to an introduction to Clagett Farm, which began donating produce to Brighter Bites families this past July. Their weekly donations have made a significant impact on the amount of variety we have been able to offer our families. Since Clagett Farm began donating produce this past summer, Brighter Bites in D.C. has increased the number of different items we have been sending home with our families from eight varieties of fresh produce each week to eleven!

“The produce from Clagett farm has been some of the freshest produce Brighter Bites has distributed in Prince George’s County, said Tara McNerney, program director for Brighter Bites in Washington, D.C. “By partnering with a local farm that takes such care in growing their vegetables we’ve been able to provide our families with produce that is very appealing in appearance, taste, and smell — more than once we’ve heard comments about the delicious smells of the peppers and tomatoes!. Families appreciate the Brighter Bites bags even more when we tell them that the beautiful produce is coming from a local farm, and it adds to the community building nature of the Brighter Bites program.”

Clagett Farm produce went home with families at both of our summer sites, and this fall all five schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland are having the opportunity to taste it as well. Each week we have been wowed by the quality and variety of produce Clagett enables our families to take home and taste. Recently, families went home with sweet baby orange bell peppers that were popping with flavor. Over the summer, families tried many varieties of heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, beans, and okra. This fall, they’ll be able to sample a variety of greens and root vegetables donated by Clagett.

We want to extend the brightest of thank yous to our wonderful friends at Clagett Farm, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Capital Area Food Bank. We are so excited to continue creating communities of health through fresh food together!

Partner Highlight: Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Companies Foundation

Posted on May 3, 2018 by -

Brighter Bites is so lucky to partner with amazing organizations across the country to create communities of health through fresh food everywhere we go. Two of these partners are teaming up with us in Washington, D.C. to bring Brighter Bites to Prince George’s County Public Schools. Learn all about our new friends in this partner spotlight!

Capital Area Food Bank

The Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) is the largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems, like chronic undernutrition, heart disease, and obesity. The CAFB is also dedicated to reducing food waste, promoting wellness, utilizing technological solutions, and being a hunger advocate. When Brighter Bites moved to DC to address such issues, our partnership with the CAFB was only natural! Learn more about the CAFB’s efforts to take hunger off the map here.

The Coastal Companies Foundation

The Coastal Companies Foundation was founded with the mission to “nourish our community” through nutrition, education, and good corporate citizenship, which it accomplishes by building community partnerships, sponsoring innovative service projects, and investing in people. Composed of operating businesses Coastal Sunbelt Produce, East Coast Fresh, and Cold Chain Logistics, The Coastal Companies Foundation is the three businesses’ joint way of giving back to their community. We are so excited to bring Brighter Bites and The Coastal Companies Foundation’s missions together to jointly serve Prince George’s County!

The Packer Reports Brighter Bites Expansion to DC

Posted on May 3, 2018 by -

The Packer, a leading source for news, information, and analysis in the fresh fruit and vegetable industry, shared the details of Brighter Bites’ recent launch in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Read the full story here.

“Coastal Cos., Food Bank Partner with Brighter Bites in D.C.

By Daniel Vanderhorst
May 2, 2018

Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Cos. Foundation are partnering with nonprofit Brighter Bites to launch school-based programs giving families increased exposure to fresh produce in Prince George’s County, Md.

The new program aims to foster healthy eating habits by giving low-income children and their families fresh fruit and vegetables along with nutrition education materials.

“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, Washington, D.C., in the release.

“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.”

The Brighter Bites programs will run in schools this spring and summer, distributing 80,000 pounds of produce and lots of nutrition education materials to 500 families and teachers at William Paca Elementary School, Cool Spring Elementary and several summer camps in Prince George’s County, according to the release.

Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Cos. Foundation will supply thousands of pounds of fresh produce, including warehousing and transportation services to support the initiative.

“When we learned that Brighter Bites was coming to the Washington, D.C., area, we knew right away it would be the ideal partnership for The Coastal Cos. Foundation,” Micah Brown, president of East Coast Fresh and executive director of The Coastal Cos. Foundation, said in the release. “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.”

As part of the Brighter Bites program, parents and community volunteers pack bags of fresh produce items for families and teachers to take home free each week during three eight-week sessions. Each two-bag set has about 50 servings of eight to 12 different produce items, according to the release.

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

The Coastal Cos. Foundation, established in 2012, coordinates the giving of The Coastal Cos. businesses: Coastal Sunbelt Produce, East Coast Fresh and Cold Chain Logistics.”

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

Posted on May 1, 2018 by -

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.