Fridays at Oran M. Roberts Elementary

Every Friday when I wake up and realize it’s my day to go to Oran M. Roberts Elementary School in Dallas, I get excited. I love working with the parent volunteers at this school. We are a well-oiled machine, moving heavy boxes of produce together, filling Brighter Bites bags with fruits and vegetables as we dance to the rhythm of Latin Beats, and distributing delicious food samples to families at pick up. Last week we bagged a total of about 8,500 pounds of produce into 270 pairs of Brighter Bites bags. Not bad for just one morning! One of our hardest workers, Leona Santos, was able to take a break in between her volunteering duties last Friday and shared her thoughts on Brighter Bites. Santos, as she likes to be called, did not have a lot of food available while growing up in Mexico. Fruit was a luxury and vegetables were rare. “This program has helped me appreciate what we receive,” she told me, “and to show my children to be grateful for what they have.” Santos is excited for the opportunity to give her kids what she was not able to have when she was growing up.

Leona Santos, parent volunteer at Oran M. Roberts Elementary in Dallas.

Her children, who are 8 and 14 years old, love eating a variety of food. They enjoy their mother’s vegetable soups, which usually include carrots, potatoes and any of the delicious veggies that show up in her Brighter Bites bags each week. They always ask for seconds and Santos appreciates that now she has the opportunity to expose her kids to a range of produce in her soups and other recipes.