Spring Volunteer Thank You
Keyword/Tag: volunteers
We Love Our Volunteers!
Brighter Bites is powered by the support of thousands of volunteers across the country who help us fulfill the three pillars of our program! At the end of the school year, we enjoy recognizing all those people who have given their time and hard work to the Brighter Bites program at their local school.
Volunteers regularly join Brighter Bites in several capacities, including produce bagging, produce distribution, and healthy recipe preparation. Every volunteer plays a huge role in supporting Brighter Bites, and we are so grateful!
To show our volunteers just how much we appreciate them, we threw them several parties across our Brighter Bites cities!
Check out some snaps from “Brighter Bites Corn-ival” in honor of our amazing Houston volunteers!
Wrapping up a Wonderful Season
Schools around the Dallas area have successfully completed a full season of Brighter Bites, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with great food and the company of all our amazing volunteers. There were nothing but smiling faces at our Uplift Infinity and Joe May Elementary celebrations. We cannot wait to see everyone in the spring!
Humans of Brighter Bites (August 2017, 2 of 3)
“I see a difference in the food between Texas and Louisiana. Back at home we would eat like hot sausage, eggs, smoked sausage. We could just go to the store, buy it and go home and do it ourselves. When I came out here, now it’s different. We couldn’t find it and then like when my dad came to visit, he would bring us this ice chest with hot sausage, smoked sausages like the stuff that we used to make a home they didn’t have it out here until we went to Fiesta and found out Fiesta had it. So we can have a piece of home in Texas.”
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 (August 2017, 1 of 3)
“I’m full born raised in New Orleans. My mom used to prepare red beans and rice, gumbo, jambalaya, dirty rice, cabbage, pasta, crawfish, crabs – all the seafood. I moved to Texas after Katrina. I was a sophomore in High School. Luckily me, my sister, and my cousin was able to get out because my sister was working at a nursing home at the time and so they gave like the employees a room for the family. When they said that New Orleans was flooded, we couldn’t go back home so we wound up going to Vacherie, Louisiana where my dad’s family is at and we stay with them until they were able to get out. When they got out, they went to Alabama to Texas, and then my daddy left Texas to come and pick us up.”
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 (July 2017, 3 of 3)
“I know that diabetes runs in my family. I’m not going to say that I’m really good about what I eat, but for the most part I am aware of it so I do try to make some changes when I can. Now that I have my son, I started to try to get him to eat better. My son honestly does have a problem with being overweight. I tell him what happened when we were growing up and we relied on the commodities. I’m trying to get him to eat vegetables. I am trying to get him to look at things differently. He loves broccoli. He likes celery, cauliflower, and carrots. He doesn’t eat them enough, be he does like them. He loves salads. He is starting to eat better, but we still have to work on that along with myself. I’m aware of the things that are good for me, but I can’t sit here and say that I eat all of the good things. There are things that are more sensible to you at the moment, and with the schedules that we have now, sometimes you just eat on demand.”
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.
Lettuce Honor the Dedication and Drive of Dallas Volunteers
This spring, our teams had the opportunity to celebrate the hard work and heavy lifting of their volunteers. On May 25 the North Texas Food Bank served as party headquarters for Brighter Bites volunteers in Dallas.
Three Cheers for Houston Volunteers!
It’s Time to Celery-brate
This year Brighter Bites was thrilled to provide programming to 50 schools in the Houston area. More schools mean more food to pack and distribute. Thousands of pounds of food may seem daunting to some, but we’ve learned after nearly five years that, when it comes to the Houston community, incredible volunteers are in no short supply.
On May 11th, the Brighter Bites Houston team expressed their thanks with an appreciation party honoring the valuable time and effort donated daily by the volunteers who make the Brighter Bites mission possible.
Approximately 300 party guests were welcomed at the Houston Food Bank with a SNAP cookbook and a beautiful slideshow of photos capturing their hard work at each of the sites. Volunteers proudly cheered as photos of their school flashed onto the screen.
In true Brighter Bites fashion the party included delicious treats for volunteers to snack on. Everyone wanted a turn on the smoothie bike where they could peddle out a creamy creation. Moments were captured in a fun and festive photo booth, and some party goers even got to walk away with amazing raffle prizes. It was a true celery-bration!
The party gave volunteers from all over Houston a chance to gather in one place and celebrate their achievements! Several shared touching stories about how Brighter Bites has impacted their lives and changed their eating habits profoundly. These personal moments were a true highlight.
The staff of Brighter Bites has the incredible opportunity to work alongside families in their own communities to inspire healthy eating and healthful choices. We are well aware that the program is only made possible by the help of the families and community members who continue to share their time, support, and strength with us. A huge thank you to all Brighter Bites volunteers!
We look forward to working with you for many years to come!
For more photos of our volunteer appreciation event check out the Album on our Facebook Page!
Humans of Brighter Bites (April 2017, 3 of 3)
Bilingual/Bilingüe
“The difference in food or the type of food preparation between Mexico and the United States… well yes, I have noticed a big difference. I see here that many people eat food in packages and this is a big difference because in Mexico you can prepare your food fresh and almost pick the food right out of the field, from the earth. Regarding food in packages, I do not consume them because I believe and feel that even if they fill me up, I will not be nourished because of their preparation process and also because they are always frozen. I will not tell you that I have not tried prepackaged food, but I take great care not to consume them. And if they do not nourish you, do you know what happens? You start to gain weight. If you do not have control in the consumption of these foods, the truth is that you gain weight and that is the fear that I have, therefore I eat as healthy as possible. I think that, just as you get to know certain places, you adapt to a certain type of food. Eating a lot of fat or eating sausages may feed us, but they do not nourish us. I think, for good health, it’s important to further promote a culture of nutritious and fresh food.”
“La diferencia de los alimentos o el tipo de preparación de alimentos entre México y Estados Unidos, pues sí he notado una gran diferencia. Yo veo aquí que mucha gente consume comida en paquetes y esto es una gran diferencia porque en México tu puedes preparar tus alimentos frescos y casi los saca del campo, de la tierra. En relación a la comida en paquetes, no las consume porque creo y siento que, si me van a llenar, pero no me van a nutrir por el proceso de preparación que tienen y además son productos que se pasan todo el tiempo congelados. No te voy a decir que yo no he probado algún alimento de paquete, pero yo cuido mucho de no consumirlos. Pero si no te nutren, sabes que sucede? Empiezas a subir de peso. Si no tienen un control en el consume de esos alimentos, la verdad, subes de peso y ese es el temor que yo tengo, por eso como lo más sano posible. Yo pienso que, así como vas conociendo ciertos lugares, te vas adaptando al tipo de alimentación. Comer mucha grasa o comer embutidos que tal vez si nos alimentan, pero no nos nutren. Creo que, para tener una buena salud, es importante promover más esta cultura de los alimentos nutritivos y frescos.”
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 (April 2017, 2 of 3)
Bilingual/Bilingüe
“There is a very important tradition that takes place in the city of Oaxaca – I do not remember if it is the 24th or 25th of December – where the radish farmers participate in a contest. They sow radishes and sometimes the radishes can weigh about half a ton. On this mass of a radish, they begin to etch out traditional figures. We can observe a farmer pushing his cart and on top of the cart are other peasants who are carrying their backpacks. They are dressed in blankets, with their hats and with a spade with which they plow the earth. In fact, people dress them up as puppets, carry them, and are accompanied by a traditional Oaxacan band. They parade around the downtown streets of the city, and it is a very beautiful celebration. Then also in addition to all of this, it is made known to people that not only is the radish used to make figures, but is a product of the land that also feeds families, like corn. We have many derivatives of corn: the tortilla, the black corn, and the native corn. Imagine how wonderful nature is to have given us all these properties.”
“Hay una tradición muy importante que se realiza en la ciudad de Oaxaca, no recuerdo si es el 24 o 25 de diciembre, donde participan los agricultores del rábano en un concurso. Ellos siembran los rábanos y a veces llegan a pesar aproximadamente media tonelada. Sobre esta masa del rábano ellos empiezan a elaborar figuras tradicionales. Podemos observar algún agricultor empujando su carreta y encima de la propia carreta van otros campesinos que van cargando sus morrales. Están vestidos de manta, con su sombrero y con la pica pala con la que aran la tierra. De hecho, la gente se disfraza de monigotes, los llevan encima, además van acompañados de una banda tradicional de Oaxaca. Recorren las calles céntricas de la ciudad y es una algarabía muy bonita. Entonces también aparte de esto se le da a conocer a la gente que no solo el rábano se utiliza para hacer figuras, sino que es un producto de la tierra que también alimenta a familias, al igual que el maíz. Tenemos muchos derivados del maíz: la tortilla, el maíz negro, y el maíz criollo. Imagínate que maravillosa es la naturaleza que nos brinda todas estas propiedades.”
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.