This past school year, the Dallas team served families at 20 programming sites. Learn all about the program and meet the folks who make it possible!
An Inside Look at Brighter Bites in Dallas, Texas
Keyword/Tag: hardies
Brighter Bites in Dallas, TX
In the summer of 2015, Brighter Bites began serving families in Dallas, TX — the program’s first expansion outside of its home in Houston. This past school year, the Dallas team served families at 20 programming sites across the city in Dallas ISD, Garland ISD, and Mesquite ISD.
Map of Brighter Bites sites in Dallas, TX, during the 2018-2019 school year
The Brighter Bites Dallas program would not be possible without the incredible support of partners like North Texas Food Bank, Brother’s Produce, Taylor Farms, Hardie’s Fresh Foods, Village Farms, and Mann Packing. Each of these partners supports Brighter Bites by providing us with produce donations, warehouse resources, and/or logistics support, all of which are crucial to making our program a success. By collaborating with Brighter Bites, these companies demonstrate both their commitment to helping communities in the Dallas area that don’t have reliable access to fresh food and their confidence in our program to help families change the way they are eating. We could not be more grateful for their partnership.
The tight-knit Dallas programming team will soon be led by incoming Program Director Julie MacPherson, who joins Brighter Bites after spending several years in Washington, D.C., Portland, and Dallas working in a variety of areas in the nonprofit space. The Dallas program director role was previously held by Alicia Farhat, who established the Dallas program nearly five years ago and helped it grow to a footprint of 20 schools in the Dallas area, serving thousands of Dallas families each year. Brighter Bites misses Alicia, and we wish her the very best! The rest of the team includes Program Manager Magaly Solis and Program Coordinators Maryann Aguinaga, Jenna Babbitt, Josh Meyer, and Dallas Riley. The team is supported by four incredible Program Associates, Suzan Mackay, Jocelyn Hunt, Yesenia Mejia, and Yolanda Johnson, as well as a high school fieldwork intern, Su Min Yoon, and a graduate school dietetic intern, Allie Kleppe.
The Dallas team has a dedicated workspace at GoodWork, a Dallas coworking office, where they enjoy working in a naturally-lit environment conducive to team building, especially through GoodWork’s periodic yoga and fitness classes! The programming team is also joined at the GoodWork office by three members of the Brighter Bites national team including Director of Strategic Parntnerships Meredith Spence, Sourcing Manager Jennifer Boone, and Nutrition Education Program Manager Jacqueline Noyola.
This summer, the Brighter Bites Dallas programming team is serving over 500 families at eight different summer sites. Join the team by signing up to volunteer at a Dallas site or in a Brighter Bites city near you!
Thanks to the Dallas team for all they do to create communities of health in Dallas!
Brighter Bites Loves Local!
When we can, Brighter Bites supports local farmers by sharing the product of their hard work with our participants. After all, it is the growers who spend their days tending to the fresh fruits and vegetables that helps Brighter Bites create communities of health! This year, parents and children in some of our Texas cities have had the opportunity to touch, taste, and cook delicious fresh produce grown in their own state.
In Austin, through our partnership with Hardie’s Fresh Foods, we are featuring Texas grown produce throughout our Spring programming. These items include: oranges and grapefruit (Edinburg Citrus Association), bok choy and beets (Rio Fresh), acorn squash (PPC Farms), collard greens (Johnson’s Backyard Garden), red cabbage (J&B Farms), and sweet potatoes (H.M. Smith & Sons). Our friends at Farmhouse Delivery have donated carrots, collards, radishes, kale, turnips, kohlrabi, and bibb lettuce all grown in Texas.
We are so grateful to the growers of fresh produce in the state of Texas!
Partner Spotlight: Hardie’s Fresh Foods
Recently, Brighter Bites Austin wrapped up a successful fall session of programming, propelled by culinary creativity, generous produce donations from growers that work with FreshPoint South Texas, and our new collaborative partnership with Hardie’s Fresh Foods.
Radames Leal, Transportation Manager (L) and Tony Medina, Operations Manager (R)
On top of delivering over 50 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables—including cantaloupe, gold kiwi, burgundy lettuce, medley tomatoes, and pears—each week to approximately 750 participants at six schools in the Austin Independent School District, the team enhanced distributions with educational recipe displays and guided culinary literacy through cooking demonstrations at three school sites. As always, inspirational school leaders, teachers, volunteers, and parents fueled the team’s continued programming excellence. Week after week of programming, Brighter Bites teachers and parents introduced their students and children to an average of nine varieties of produce, all of which entered through Hardie’s Fresh Foods’ warehouse doors before being re-packed and delivered to school sites, thanks to their exceptional warehouse and transportation teams.
Sidney Krzywonsky, Receiver
David Ibarra, Warehouse Team Member, builds and stages all Brighter Bites mixed pallets
Jose Martinez, Driver, delivers produce to Brighter Bites schools
Paike Morris, Driver, delivers produce to Brighter Bites schools
We could not be more grateful to Hardie’s Fresh Foods for their warm, enthusiastic welcome and incredible support of our program and mission. Many thanks to FreshPoint South Texas, Feeding Texas, and Hardie’s Fresh Foods for your shared passion and partnership.
Alex Rangel, Transportation Supervisor
David McCoy, General Manager
Brian Williams, Receiver
Gaudencio Bautista, Receiver
Happy Thanksgiving from Brighter Bites!
