News Type: Partner Highlights

Brighter Bites Names Top Donor Partners of 2018-19

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Christina Blick -

Today, Brighter Bites announces its top donor partners from across the produce industry.

Together these eight organizations helped donate produce that Brighter Bites distributed to 27,000 families in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and Southwest Florida during the 2018-19 academic year.

Brighter Bites Top Donor Partners are:
• The Coastal Companies Foundation
• D’Arrigo Bros. of New York
• Hardie’s Fresh Foods
• Lipman Family Farms
• Mann Packing
• Southern Specialties
• Sysco Freshpoint
• Taylor Farms Texas

Brighter Bites would not be possible without the remaining produce and logistical support that come from our Feeding America Food Bank partners who include the Houston Food Bank, North Texas Food Bank, City Harvest, Capital Area Food Bank, and Harry Chapin Food Bank.

“Our ability to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to our families is completely dependent on the support of our partners,” said Brighter Bites CEO Rich Dachman. “The generous donations of produce from these partners and other suppliers, alongside our extraordinary partnerships with our food banks, allows us to achieve our mission of improving the health of our society, especially those who have fewer resources. I believe our industry has a responsibility to utilize its produce to fight the childhood obesity epidemic and improve health outcomes. I challenge all in the industry to get involved. Brighter Bites is a great place to start so we can scale our program to reach even more communities in need of fresh food and better health.”

A student at “Joe” May Elementary School in Dallas enjoys apples donated to Brighter Bites by Taylor Farms Texas.

This Brighter Bites announcement was reported by the following publications:

The Produce News
The Packer
Perishable News
And Now U Know

Meet our Austin Partners

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Christina Blick -

Our primary partners in Austin are Hardie’s Fresh Foods and FreshPoint South Texas.

The Austin team tours a Hardie’s facility.

Hardie’s Fresh Foods, a for-profit produce distribution company, provides the operations support for the Austin program. They donate time, energy, and resources to help our program run each week. Hardie’s employees from various departments help us purchase, receive, and store produce in their warehouse and then build pallets and deliver all of the produce to our schools. Hardie’s Fresh Foods continues to play an integral part in the success and expansion of our program in Austin.

Hardie’s employee Jose helps position his truck to unload produce for a Brighter Bites bagging

FreshPoint South Texas provides support with sourcing and delivering produce from Mann Packing, Church Brothers, Pure Flavor, and Potandon, among others, each week. Working with FreshPoint South Texas has allowed us to increase the variety of produce in our bags and even work with local Texas farmers from time to time!

A student at Jordan Elementary holds the Caulilini donated by produce company Mann Packing.

This past year, Brighter Bites Austin took on the challenge of entering 10 new schools in addition to returning to two existing schools. As such, the teamwork of school principals, parent support specialists, and teachers became another one of our essential partnerships that played a huge role in the success of our programming. We are consistently blown away by the support and energy of the individuals leading and educating Austin’s youth! Learn about some of our staff and volunteer superstars here.

Volunteers gather for a group photo at Jordan Elementary, one of our new spring 2019 sites.

Of course, Austin’s great success this year is also due in large part to our dynamic team. You can learn all about the fantastic ladies who help the program shine in Austin in our special staff spotlight.

The Austin team pauses during a team meeting to a snap a pic.

We are so grateful to our incredible partners who generously support the Brighter Bites program in Austin, TX: Hardie’s Fresh Foods, FreshPoint South Texas, St. David’s Foundation, Walmart, and Target, among others. Sending a special thank you for all of our partners’ great generosity and support!

Students at Wooldridge Elementary prepared thank you posters for our partner Hardie’s Fresh Foods.

Fantastic Partners in Florida

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites is fortunate to work closely with several incredible partners in Southwest Florida, including the Harry Chapin Food Bank, Lipman Family Farms, Southern Specialties, and The Blue Zones Project. Get to know a little about each of the organizations below!

The Harry Chapin Food Bank, a leading force for ending hunger in Southwest Florida, provides Brighter Bites with produce and handles all of our logistics. They additionally welcomed our team into their Naples, FL office space, where our three staff members handle the behind-the-scenes work of running Brighter Bites.

Our friends from the Harry Chapin Food Bank!

Lipman Family Farms is America’s largest field tomato grower and the lead funder of our program in Southwest Florida. Lipman is always willing to lend a helping hand with extra produce and logistics support when our program needs it. Juan Vila is one of Lipman’s super star employees who always goes above and beyond to make sure Brighter Bites gets all produce to the schools on time.

Southwest Florida Program Director Marcela Romero and Senior Program Director Mike Pomeroy take a tour of Lipman Family Farms

Southern Specialties is a produce distributor who helps ensure Brighter Bites gets to share a wide variety of produce with our families so they can try fruits and veggies they’ve never tasted before. Southern Specialties has introduced our families to sugar snap peas, white asparagus, and escarole, just to name a few!

A student at RCMA Immokalee Community School shows off some asparagus donated by Southern Specialties

We’re also excited to partner with the Southwest Florida chapter of The Blue Zones Project, a community-by-community initiative designed to enable community members to live longer, happier lives with lower rates of chronic diseases and a higher quality of life. The Blue Zones Project is a great community partner who always invites us to their events and help us spread the word about Brighter Bites in the region.

Join us in thanking our incredible Southwest Florida partners!

Partner Spotlight: The Coastal Companies Foundation

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites is fortunate to work with incredible produce partners around the country, and today we’d like to introduce you to a unique partner that is an integral part of our Washington, D.C. program: The Coastal Companies Foundation.

The Coastal Companies Foundation (Coastal) is a major mid-Atlantic distributor of fresh produce and dairy and a leading regional processor of fruits and vegetables through its three operating businesses: Coastal Sunbelt Produce, East Coast Fresh, and Cold Chain Logistics. Coastal was established in 2012 with the mission of nourishing its community through nutrition, education, and good corporate citizenship. “Our partnership with Brighter Bites further helps us accomplish that mission by directing produce and education to children and their families right here in our backyard,” said Micah Brown, president of East Coast Fresh and executive director of The Coastal Companies Foundation. “We are thrilled to be able to positively influence the eating habits of our surrounding community through the Brighter Bites program and give back in a truly meaningful way.”

We are equally thrilled to partner with Coastal, who has put their full-support behind Brighter Bites and mobilized their network of regional growers to introduce our families to an incredible variety of produce.

Jaci Daly, a Coastal Sunbelt Produce buyer, explains the process of gathering produce donations from suppliers:

“We seek support primarily through direct donations, but also by looking for opportunities when market supply exceeds demand. Our goal is to provide four unique items per week and, when possible, look to source retail packed products for two main reason: so families can recognize the brands when they are shopping on their own and to make it easier for volunteers packing the bags.”

Coastal’s dedication to sourcing produce from their incredible network of vendors has resulted in Coastal supporting half of our produce donations in Washington, D.C. Past Coastal produce donations have included unusual and exciting items like persimmons, celery root, Asian pears, and even edible flowers!

“Our vendors are proud to join us in supporting Brighter Bites, because they share our belief in the mission of creating communities of health through fresh food,” said Daly.

“We’re thrilled that Brighter Bites is empowering families with the knowledge to choose healthy, fresh produce, and we look forward to continuing to partner with them through Coastal,” said Josh Curland of BrightFarms, a Coastal vendor.

Brown put it best when he described the communal effort of the produce industry to create communities of health:

“While I’m not surprised by the impact of the program in Prince George’s County, I have been so impressed and humbled by the produce industry as a whole as it has come together to support this great cause, both here in the D.C. metro area and across the nation. Without the amazing support of our vendors and suppliers, none of this would be possible. And I can say personally that seeing the joy and genuine gratitude on the faces of those we are able to serve each week through this program makes it all worthwhile.”

We are so humbled by the hard work and generosity of The Coastal Companies Foundation and their dedicated vendors, and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their incredible partnership over the last two years. We can’t wait to keep creating communities of health with you!

Check out a few snaps of our students saying thank you to Coastal’s amazing vendors!

Partner Highlight: Southern Specialties

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Christina Blick -

Our friends at Southern Specialties, a South Florida fruit and vegetable grower and shipper, have partnered with Brighter Bites to provide two varieties of produce each week to our Southwest Florida program. We are so excited about this partnership and all the wonderful produce varieties that our families will be introduced to.

“Southern Specialties is very proud of our association with Brighter Bites. Together, we are moving the needle towards greater fruit and vegetable consumption among children and their families,” said Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development for Southern Specialties. “It is gratifying to see the quantifiable results produced by the Brighter Bites program.”

“With consistent support from Southern Specialties each week of our programming in Southwest Florida, we are sure to be giving our families in Immokalee and other parts of Collier County access to two additional unique items of produce each and every week of the program,” said Brighter Bites Executive Director Samuel Newman. “During this season of gratitude, we are thankful for produce houses like Southern Specialties who understand that exposing Brighter Bites families to fresh food is giving them the gift of health.”

Read more about the collaboration between Southern Specialties and Brighter Bites!
– Southern Specialties gives produce to Brighter Bites program
– South Florida grower partners with local nonprofit
– Southern Specialties Partners for Nutrition

Check out some photos of produce that Southwest Specialties donated to Brighter Bites during the Fall 2018 season.

Thanksgiving 2018: Thank You Partners!

Posted on November 19, 2018 by Christina Blick -

As Thanksgiving brings us near the end of another Brighter Bites season, we find ourselves reflecting on how thankful we are for our many wonderful partners who help us in our effort to create communities of health through fresh food everywhere we go.

We’re grateful for our produce partners, who help us fill brown bags with a variety of colorful and nutritious fruits and vegetables during each week of programming. Every season we introduce Brighter Bites families to produce that may be entirely new to them, like mushrooms, bell peppers, and cauliflower. It’s thanks to the support of our amazing produce partners that we send students and their families home with enough produce so that each family member can have a few tries of each variety.

Click on any of our incredible produce partners below to learn more about their produce offerings:

We additionally have a great system of partner organizations that continually support our mission of providing kids and their families something better to munch on so that they can lead lives as vibrant as the foods they crave. These organizations are the backbone of our presence in each of our six cities and we couldn’t be more thankful for their support.

Click to learn about our stellar program partners:

Visit our Partners page for a full list of our partner organizations and supporters.

Media Release: Halliburton Charitable Foundation Funds Brighter Bites Expansion in Houston

Posted on November 8, 2018 by Christina Blick -

Houston, TX (November 9, 2018) – Halliburton Charitable Foundation has selected Houston-based nonprofit Brighter Bites as one of 26 organizations to receive more than $3.3 million raised by 440 golfers and 150 sponsors at The Clubs of Kingwood on October 24.

Brighter Bites tackles childhood obesity by providing low-income families with free fresh produce and nutrition education. Support from the Halliburton Charitable Foundation provides the necessary tools to build internal capacity for Brighter Bites to add one more Houston-area school district to the four Brighter Bites already delivers programming to in the region.

“Brighter Bites provide a tremendous service for families, and we are so glad to be able to help those in the communities where Halliburton employees live and work,” said Susanna Sabbagh, President, Halliburton Charitable Foundation. “We value the opportunity to build an on-going relationship with Brighter Bites, through meaningful volunteer opportunities for our employees, as well as through funding support.”

The 24th annual Halliburton Charity Golf Tournament raised more than $3.3 million for nonprofit organizations across Houston and the U.S., the highest amount raised since the tournament first teed-off over 20 years ago. To date, the tournament has raised over $19 million. This is the second time Brighter Bites has been selected by the Halliburton Charitable Foundation, having received funds raised by the golf tournament in 2017.

“Expansion within Houston by adding Johnson Elementary School, located on Houston’s north side, is a boon to our Houston program,” said Brighter Bites Executive Director Samuel Newman. “Thanks to the generosity of Halliburton Charitable Foundation, Brighter Bites has entered Aldine ISD for the first time, serving roughly 150 families to start and reaching a whole new area of the city where a program like ours will have a significant impact.”

Each week families and teachers participating in Brighter Bites receive two bags containing approximately 50 servings of eight to 12 different fresh produce items along with the nutritional educational materials. Since launching in 2012, Brighter Bites has distributed more than 18 million pounds of produce and hundreds of thousands of nutrition education materials to 265,000 individuals from more than 40,000 families through schools and summer camps in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Southwest Florida. Brighter Bites uses a simple formula for introducing healthy lifestyles to families: produce distribution, nutrition education, and a fun food experience that includes sampling a recipe of the week to see just how great produce can taste.

Brighter Bites measures the outcomes of its program to determine impact. Research shows the Brighter Bites model provides consistent opportunities for children and their families to practice healthier behaviors in school and at home:

98% of Brighter Bites parents report their children eating more fruits and vegetables while participating in the Brighter Bites program.
Of those, 74% said they maintained that increased level of consumption after Brighter Bites ended.

Children and parents participating in Brighter Bites reported a:

significant increase in the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed;
significant increase in serving more fruits and vegetables as snacks;
two-fold increase in cooking meals from scratch, and a significant increase in eating meals together and serving more produce as part of those meals;
two-fold increase in using nutrition labels to guide grocery purchases;
and a significant decrease in added sugars consumed among children.

About Brighter Bites:

Brighter Bites is a nonprofit that creates communities of health through fresh food with the goal of changing behavior among children and their families to prevent obesity and achieve long-term health. Brighter Bites is an evidence-based, multi-component elementary school, preschool, and summer camp program that utilizes reliable access to fruits and vegetables, nutrition education, and consistent exposure to recipes and messages that feature fresh food. Since 2012, Brighter Bites has provided more than 18 million pounds of produce and 100,000s of nutrition education materials to more than 265,000 individuals (including teachers!) at 125 sites in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, and Southwest Florida. The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) recently named Brighter Bites the winner of the 2018 PHA Impact Award. In 2016, Brighter Bites won the Texas Health Champion Award. To learn more about Brighter Bites visit BrighterBites.org.

Thank You Mann’s!

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Christina Blick -

We are so grateful to partner with our friends at Mann’s, who provide a variety of fresh produce to our families in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Recently our families have enjoyed Mann’s red leaf lettuce and cauliflower. Take a look at our photo diary of how a Mann’s lettuce donation makes its way through our bagging assembly line and into the hands of children and their families:

Partner Highlight: Clagett Farm

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites is fortunate to partner with so many amazing organizations across the country that share our mission of creating communities of health through fresh food. One such organization is Clagett Farm.

Clagett Farm is a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland run by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a regional nonprofit that seeks to protect the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has developed Clagett Farm into an veritable outdoor classroom where local students have the opportunity to learn the principles of sustainable farming. For the past 20 years, Clagett Farm has partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C. to provide free and reduced-price, fresh produce to people living in poverty and near-poverty in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Our partnership in Washington, D.C. with the Capital Area Food Bank led to an introduction to Clagett Farm, which began donating produce to Brighter Bites families this past July. Their weekly donations have made a significant impact on the amount of variety we have been able to offer our families. Since Clagett Farm began donating produce this past summer, Brighter Bites in D.C. has increased the number of different items we have been sending home with our families from eight varieties of fresh produce each week to eleven!

“The produce from Clagett farm has been some of the freshest produce Brighter Bites has distributed in Prince George’s County, said Tara McNerney, program director for Brighter Bites in Washington, D.C. “By partnering with a local farm that takes such care in growing their vegetables we’ve been able to provide our families with produce that is very appealing in appearance, taste, and smell — more than once we’ve heard comments about the delicious smells of the peppers and tomatoes!. Families appreciate the Brighter Bites bags even more when we tell them that the beautiful produce is coming from a local farm, and it adds to the community building nature of the Brighter Bites program.”

Clagett Farm produce went home with families at both of our summer sites, and this fall all five schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland are having the opportunity to taste it as well. Each week we have been wowed by the quality and variety of produce Clagett enables our families to take home and taste. Recently, families went home with sweet baby orange bell peppers that were popping with flavor. Over the summer, families tried many varieties of heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, beans, and okra. This fall, they’ll be able to sample a variety of greens and root vegetables donated by Clagett.

We want to extend the brightest of thank yous to our wonderful friends at Clagett Farm, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Capital Area Food Bank. We are so excited to continue creating communities of health through fresh food together!

Partner Highlight: Capital Area Food Bank and The Coastal Companies Foundation

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Christina Blick -

Brighter Bites is so lucky to partner with amazing organizations across the country to create communities of health through fresh food everywhere we go. Two of these partners are teaming up with us in Washington, D.C. to bring Brighter Bites to Prince George’s County Public Schools. Learn all about our new friends in this partner spotlight!

Capital Area Food Bank

The Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) is the largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems, like chronic undernutrition, heart disease, and obesity. The CAFB is also dedicated to reducing food waste, promoting wellness, utilizing technological solutions, and being a hunger advocate. When Brighter Bites moved to DC to address such issues, our partnership with the CAFB was only natural! Learn more about the CAFB’s efforts to take hunger off the map here.

The Coastal Companies Foundation

The Coastal Companies Foundation was founded with the mission to “nourish our community” through nutrition, education, and good corporate citizenship, which it accomplishes by building community partnerships, sponsoring innovative service projects, and investing in people. Composed of operating businesses Coastal Sunbelt Produce, East Coast Fresh, and Cold Chain Logistics, The Coastal Companies Foundation is the three businesses’ joint way of giving back to their community. We are so excited to bring Brighter Bites and The Coastal Companies Foundation’s missions together to jointly serve Prince George’s County!