Good tasting fresh food is a vital part of our third pillar — the fun food experience. To that end, we are always thinking about providing our families with new, yummy, easy-to-make recipes that utilize fresh fruits and vegetables.
On Friday, December 4, Brighter Bites wrapped up our first fall season of programming in Austin! Over the course of eight weeks, we distributed more than 373,000 pounds of produce to nearly 1640 families at nine elementary schools and one after school program, including:
The volunteers at some schools had potluck celebrations to mark the end of the semester. Volunteers prepared dishes like soups, salads, and healthy protein dishes that were chock full of many of the fruits and vegetables seen in the Brighter Bites bags. We were also excited to see some new fruit and veggie combinations in some of their own recipes! We sincerely thank all of our volunteers who spent their time and flexed their muscles to make this program a success for eight weeks this fall. We look forward to working with these volunteers and schools in January when our program starts up again in the spring. Go Austin!
It’s that time again folks. We’re excited to be back in action this spring! We’ve been working on bunches and bushels of projects this winter to make this spring extra tasty. Our resident wizard in the kitchen, Christina, is writing new recipes so prepare your taste buds for the culinary adventure they are about to take! We should know. We’ve been testing them on ourselves. Would you have guessed that broccoli and grapes taste great together? You’ll get to sample our snack and find out for yourself. The new and improved parent manual has arrived as well! On top of being absolutely gorgeous, it’s fun and informative (look under ‘Tips & Tools’ soon to find a copy). Chapters include Desserts Done Right and Making a Menu! We want to give you the tools to make healthier decisions. This includes NEW RECIPES! Carrot Cake and Smoky Greens are a couple of our favorites. Oh, and the Watermelon Refresher! Who doesn’t love a cool beverage in the sweltering Texas summer? 
We can’t contain our enthusiasm for what this semester might bring. It’s a new growing season so we’ll get lots of different fruits and veggies that we didn’t have in the fall. Broccoli, kale, pineapples, and strawberries are on our wish list! Did we mention that we have added a new school?! The opportunity to share our message with new Brighter Biters is indescribably motivating. Can’t wait to start!