Keyword/Tag: volunteer

Humans of Brighter Bites (March 2017, 3 of 3)

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Christina Blick -

“This is my sixth year of teaching. When I first came, the snacks and stuff my students would bring and the way they ate was so different. I’ve definitely seen a change. I mean my kids get excited when we get a bag of oranges. They’re like, ‘Can we put this to the side for snack?’ They are really good about not just wanting to eat everything at once. Before, it was anything they could have. I think it’s because they were hungry and not eating well. Anything they ate was all full of sugar so they were constantly hungry, where now they’re not as hungry because they’re eating more nutritious food. So definitely I think that they’ve gotten healthier.”

Humans of Brighter Bites is a series that captures how Brighter Bites volunteers, participants, teachers, and supporters connect with food. Check back here for each installment of the current story and each month for a new story.

Humans of Brighter Bites (February 2017, 3 of 3)

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Christina Blick -

“It’s called maqluba. It’s my favorite food for people to try for the first time. Every Friday, it’s a special day. All the family will come and visit. You have maqluba for every dinner. It’s very important. I make different food, but actually we like maqluba just too much. Everything closes, like stores. Everybody goes to pray, to the mosque. They come back home, all the families, and eat dinner. Visit and share. And if you find someone that doesn’t cook, you leave some of yours and give it to them. I have my neighbors in the United States – they’re not Muslim, but it’s okay. We have many years together. I always cook for them.”

Shipt to Join Brighter Bites in New Partnership

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Christina Blick -

Today we’re delighted to announce a new program partnership with Shipt, the on-demand grocery delivery service. Shipt will sponsor Brighter Bites programming in 2017 at one school in each of our three cities: Austin, Houston, and Dallas.

“We’re committed to long-term support of the Brighter Bites mission,” says Liz Willis Cook, Community Partnership Specialist at Shipt, “and plan to provide volunteer time and in-kind support in addition to a monetary commitment throughout our partnership.”

Shipt’s initial contribution came through their significant donation to Brighter Bites in support of our fundraising effort for the Austin Marathon. With Shipt’s help, Brighter Bites will benefit from a Moody Foundation donation which made a grant that will match all donations raised by the 27 official Austin Gives Miles charities, up to $10,000 per charity.

We’re looking forward to spending Marathon weekend with the folks from Shipt. First, we’ll share a booth at the Race Expo on Friday, February 17 & Saturday, February 18 at the Austin Convention Center. That’s where the race’s 14,000+ runners pick up their race packets, try new running gear, and sample energy snacks. Brighter Bites and Shipt will be handing out crisp red apples and swag to anyone who comes to our booth! Shipt will also join us at the Brighter Bites Aid Station located at Mile 8 on the Marathon course, also known as The Rock at Town Lake, where our volunteers will be cheering on thousands of runners and hydrating them as they pass.

We are over the moon about our new partnership with Shipt! And don’t you just love their logo?

Humans of Brighter Bites (January 2017, 2 of 3)

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Christina Blick -

“My little ones – macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. If I bake some chicken or bake some pork steaks or spaghetti, my stepson will not eat it. Peanut butter and jelly – that’s what he eats every day for lunch. He don’t eat the school cafeteria food. I give him a piece of chicken and he says, ‘Uh! That’s gross!’ He’ll pull the cheese off the pizza and just put the toppings back on, and then he’ll eat the pizza. But when I first met his mom, he used to eat everything. His favorite was sausage and beans. He don’t even eat that anymore. But he’ll go into McDonald’s. He’ll eat a hamburger from McDonald’s. Everybody eats hamburgers from McDonald’s.”

Austin NPR Station Shines Nonprofit Spotlight on Brighter Bites in January

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites is this month’s featured nonprofit in the Get Involved Spotlight at KUT Austin/90.5 FM, the NPR Station in Austin.

Each month KUT spotlights a local nonprofit through radio and, sometimes, video spots. The purpose of the stories is to connect listeners, through volunteering or contributions, with charities that make an impact on Austinites.

Brighter Bites will be featured in radio spots throughout the month of January on KUT 90.5 FM and the short video KUT produced showing Brighter Bites in action will remain on their website along with information about the program.

Brighter Bites Delivers Nearly 2,000,000 Pounds of Produce to Almost 8,000 Dallas Families in 2016

Posted on December 13, 2016 by Christina Blick -

North Texas Food Bank employees pictured above (left to right): Sally Seybert, Noe Saldivar, Jerrye Hall, Dale Long, Marcus Moss, Vince Rhinehart, Carl Rhodes, Danny Foreman, and Steve Coppedge.

The year 2016 has been the busiest yet for the Brighter Bites team in Dallas. As fall programming comes to an end this month, we will have delivered more than 763,900 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies to 3,330 families. Over the course of the entire year, we have distributed nearly 2,000,000 pounds of produce to almost 8,000 families.

With such a productive year, we could not be prouder of our team or more grateful for the support we have received from each school and summer camp we served this year. The parent and community volunteers, faculty, and administration at all of our sites have embraced our mission to create communities of health in Dallas and consistently work with us to help us achieve our goals at their sites. Our Program Director, Alicia Farhat, along with Program Coordinators Jacqueline Noyola, Magaly Solis, and Catherine Miller and Program Associates Meredith Spence, Jamie Carrillo, Dallas Ruggieri, Maryann Aguinaga, and Stephanie Wells truly appreciate all of them and their enthusiasm for Brighter Bites.

Our programming would not be possible without the unwavering support of the staff at the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB). The warehouse, transportation, and procurement teams at NTFB work in tandem with Brighter Bites Dallas to ensure that our families receive a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables every week that we provide programming. We cannot thank them enough for their partnership. Vince Rhinehart, Marcus Moss, Jerrye Hall, and Joe Crawford, among many other NTFB team members (pictured above), are the people who help to ensure there is a steady supply of produce arriving at our schools and summer camps all year long.

Finally, we want to thank FreshPoint Dallas for organizing produce donations from various suppliers this fall semester, and to everyone else who has donated their time and resources to ensure the success of Brighter Bites in Dallas.Your support of our mission is a testament to our success.

Cele(ry)brating Our Volunteers

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Christina Blick -

Volunteers are vital to the success of Brighter Bites and without them we could not serve the thousands of families during the year. To show our deep appreciations, the Houston Brighter Bites team celebrated all the volunteers from the school year at a Volunteer Appreciation Party on May 19. We hosted the party at the Houston Food Bank, the site where all of the Brighter Bites produce is stored. It was an event to remember!

Dallas Completes Fall Season in Brighter Bites Style

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Chris Manlapid -

Dallas has wrapped up a fantastic fall this year with 665,000 pounds of produce delivered to 2500 families. To mark the occasion, some parent volunteers celebrated in Brighter Bites style! At Roger Q. Mills Elementary, the volunteers organized a Thanksgiving-inspired get together. Everyone brought a side dish whose main ingredient was a fruit or vegetable. Ana Saldana brought a beautiful and delicious zucchini and corn casserole. Kudos to Ana for embracing Brighter Bites in her everyday cooking — it was a big hit! At Brighter Bites, our volunteers come together each week to work hard, but they also have a chance to develop friendships and create community. For centuries, people have come together around food — planting, harvesting, eating in small groups, and gathering for large celebrations. We are continuing this tradition by creating a community around fresh produce and giving that community the opportunity to make healthier choices. Our volunteers in Dallas made it happen. We hope you will too! Happy holidays!

Over 373,000 Pounds of Produce Distributed in Austin This Fall!

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Chris Manlapid -

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:

Casey Elementary School
Cunningham Elementary School
Houston Elementary School
Langford Elementary School
Odom Elementary School
Perez Elementary School
Pleasant Hill Elementary School
Rodriguez Elementary School
Widen Elementary School
Foundation Communities Learning Centers at Sierra Vista and Sierra Ridge.

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!

Weekend Volunteers Kick off the Summer in Houston

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Chris Manlapid -

Brighter Bites Houston launched its third summer season with an especially exciting twist last weekend. We held a volunteering event at the Houston Food Bank utilizing our assembly line process to bag potatoes, onions, corn, and green beans in preparation for our first week of distributions.

Typically we do bag everything onsite but for the first time we gave our parents and community members who aren’t available to volunteer during the work day a chance to contribute to the program in a new and different way. Not only did we meet new volunteers, but we also had the opportunity to work more closely with the Volunteer Productions Department at the Houston Food Bank. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of working in the carousel room at the Houston Food Bank you know how much fun we had last Saturday. Everyone is ready to work and have fun. Over 20 community volunteers helped us fill 456 bags of potatoes, onions, corn, and fresh green beans (about 15 lbs. apiece, if you’re counting, which we are). All of the bags were delivered on Tuesday to Gulfton Promise Head Start and Ripley House, two of the larger Brighter Bites sites in Houston. Having the produce pre-bagged helped to make the distributions run quite smoothly. We’re going to hold several more weekend volunteer events throughout the Brighter Bites seasons. Keep an eye out on Volunteer Match as well as the Houston Food Bank volunteer calendar.