Keyword/Tag: grant

Press Release: Brighter Bites Receives $50,000 Grant from The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation

Posted on March 12, 2020 by -

 

Support will impact nationwide programming, expansion in Houston and Dallas, TX.

Houston, TX (March 12, 2020) – As part of its commitment to creating healthier communities free of hunger and waste, The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation has directed a $50,000 grant to Brighter Bites to support expanding access to fresh produce and nutrition education in underserved communities across the U.S. The grant will support Brighter Bites’ program implementation nationwide, as well as program expansion in two Kroger communities—Houston and Dallas.

“Brighter Bites is thankful to The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation for its generous support and commitment to addressing the relationship between food insecurity and waste in our communities,” said Brighter Bites CEO Rich Dachman. “Through this partnership, Brighter Bites will be able to redirect more produce into the hands of those that need it—mitigating food waste while feeding and teaching healthier habits to the families we serve.”

While an estimated 10% of the U.S. population has poor access to fresh foods, 40% of the U.S. supply chain of fruits and vegetables goes to waste every year, costing $218 billion annually to grow, process, transport and dispose of food that is never eaten.

Embedded within the Brighter Bites formula is the implicit mitigation of food waste. By increasing the recovery of produce from growers, distributors, and food banks, and reducing food waste at the consumer level by teaching families how to use it, Brighter Bites is working to convert food waste into a public health opportunity.

“The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation is excited to partner with Brighter Bites to expand their program,” said Sunny Reelhorn Parr, executive director of The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation. “We celebrate their dedication to education and outreach efforts, and we look forward to working with their innovative team to help achieve our mission of creating communities free of hunger and waste.”

Brighter Bites’ partnership with The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation will also include volunteer support from Kroger associates at Brighter Bites program sites in Houston and Dallas. This school year, the organization is projected to enroll more than 30,000 children and their families across 133 schools and 48 summer camps in eight cities.

 

This story was published in the following publications:

 

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

Posted on January 30, 2020 by -

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.

 

 

Press Release: Walmart announces more than $1 million in support for Brighter Bites

Posted on October 8, 2019 by -

Walmart has committed $4 million to help fight food insecurity in Texas, and nearly $1.3 million will go to fresh produce-focused nonprofit Brighter Bites.

Brighter Bites distributes produce and provides nutrition and preparation information to families in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C., metro area and southwest Florida. The program will enroll more than 100,000 people from roughly 30,000 families for the 2019-20 school year.

Since the 2017-18 school year, the number of school sites with Brighter Bites programming has grown 23%, and the number of families served has more than doubled.

“The Walmart Foundation’s support of Brighter Bites allows us to build larger communities of fresh food in the cities where we operate, pursuing our mission without missing a beat,” Brighter Bites CEO Rich Dachman said in the release.

Since it launched in 2012, Brighter Bites has distributed more than 23 million pounds of produce through schools, after-school programs and summer camps. Research shows that produce consumption of participating families increases during the Brighter Bites program and remains at that higher level after the program ends, according to the release.

Participants in Brighter Bites reported higher consumption of vegetables and fruits as snacks, lower consumption of added sugar by children, and more meals eaten together as a family.

Those taking part in the program also report a two-fold increase in cooking meals from scratch and a two-fold increase in using nutrition labels to inform purchases at the store.

“Food insecurity is an issue that far too many families face every day, and we know the best way to make a difference is by using our strengths and engaging local organizations with deep roots in communities we serve,” Julie Gehrki, vice president of philanthropy at Walmart, said in the release. “Brighter Bites has a proven track record of making a strong, measurable impact and it’s our hope that through this work we can ensure that families have access to healthy, nutritious food.”

 

This exciting milestone was reported by the following publications:

The Packer
Produce Retailer
Chronicle of Philanthropy – Roundup of Recent Grants

Press Release: The Walmart Foundation gives $1.3M grant to Brighter Bites

Posted on September 26, 2019 by -

BENTONVILLE, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Walmart Foundation announced today nearly $4 million in grants to organizations working to fight hunger in Texas–Brighter Bites and Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative.

This support comes at a crucial time when, according to Feeding America, Texas is home to 10 percent of the nation’s food-insecure individuals, where more than 4 million people struggle with hunger, including 1.6 million children. In addition to food insecurity, only 10 percent of Texans are meeting the CDC’s recommended daily vegetable intake and only 12 percent meet the daily recommended fruit intake.

“As the nation’s largest grocer, Walmart is in a unique position to create effective and sustainable solutions to help combat food insecurity in the communities we serve,” said Julie Gehrki, vice president of philanthropy at Walmart BB #:143789. “By leveraging the strengths of our business and engaging with the right partners on the ground through philanthropic investments, we’re supporting innovative programs that both address immediate needs locally and strengthen the broader meal system.”

Brighter Bites

A nearly $1.3 million grant supports Brighter Bites, a Houston based non-profit focused on increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables combined with nutrition education to prevent obesity and improve health outcomes for low-income children and families.

The grant helps expand Brighter Bites in Dallas, Houston and Austin, as well as other markets in the U.S. Thanks in large part to this grant, the program has added 18 new sites and more than doubled the number of families served since the 2017-18 school year.

“Far too many households in Texas are faced with food insecurity and lack of proper nutrition,” stated Rich Dachman, CEO of Brighter Bites. “It’s our goal to change that by increasing access to healthy, nutritious foods for more families.”

As part of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, the Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) is a capacity-building, collaborative project dedicated to developing and implementing strategies to end hunger through policy, education, research, community organizing and community development.

The Walmart Foundation has dedicated a grant of $2,600,000 to THI for use over 24 months. The grant will be used to increase access to healthy food through learning labs, direct outreach, research and policy engagement. The grant will also be used to help pilot community-based programs developing strategies to deepen insights and create successful food assistance systems.

“This grant from the Walmart Foundation will help us work to end food insecurity in our communities,” said Jeremy Everett, founder and executive director of the Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University. “Our goal with this grant is to identify solutions that can be scaled and replicated to combat hunger in Texas and beyond.”

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, over 275 million customers and members visit our more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2019 revenue of $514.4 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.

Contacts
Blair Cromwell
1-800-331-0085
news.walmart.com/reporter

Walmart’s exciting announcement about their grant benefiting Brighter Bites was also reported by the following publications:

Yahoo Finance
Trib Talk
Produce Blue Book
Arkansas Democrat Gazette