This summer our Dallas team will be working at 15 different camps! Nearly 2000 families will receive nutrition education and 30-35 pounds of produce each week camp is in session. Thanks to North Texas Food Bank, YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, Boys and Girls Clubs of Dallas, Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas, and others, for getting this summer season off to a great start for the children who attend these camps!
This past school year was a huge success! Houston saw the largest group of families ever participate in Brighter Bites. During just the spring semester we served more than 1.1 million pounds of produce and nutrition education to over 5,000 families at 41 elementary and middle schools and Head Start and after-school programs in Houston ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Pasadena ISD, KIPP Houston Public Schools, Neighborhood Centers Inc., and Southwest Schools. O
We appreciate the effort and enthusiasm from our fantastic volunteers, families, and staff members who work tirelessly through the weeks to create communities of health throughout Houston. A special thanks to our partners at the Houston Food Bank, Sysco, H-E-B, Feeding Texas, SNAP-Ed, Texas Department of Agriculture, UTHealth School of Public Health, and CATCH, who continue to support the work of Brighter Bites in Houston and beyond.
Between December 2015 and February 2016, three significant research reports were published that focus on the entangled topics of food insecurity, childhood obesity, diet-related chronic disease, and increasing healthcare expenses. These publications, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) , the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Bread for the World Institute make it hard to ignore that much of what we eat is adversely impacting our health and, in turn, driving up healthcare costs. They are sending a loud and clear message that changes in our diet are a solution to improving health in this country as obesity rates remain high and give rise to chronic illness. As National Nutrition Month passes and Healthy Texas Week begins, I am compelled to sound the alarm about these problems and shine light on one Houston-grown solution close to my heart.
We want food and we want it fast. Fast foods are plentiful at corner stores and restaurants across our city, which make it easy to feed our kids unhealthy foods when they are grumbling for a snack. There is good news, however. We are now creating a new fast food by getting fresh fruits and vegetables into the homes of underserved families.
On nearly any given day during the school year and summer break, families in Houston, Dallas, and Austin receive 30 pounds of fresh produce coupled with nutrition education through a non-profit organization I founded four years ago in Houston called Brighter Bites. I started Brighter Bites because my son’s taste for processed food and sweets dramatically declined after he was exposed to a large variety of fruits and vegetables I brought home each week from a local Houston co-op that supports organic farmers, many of them located in Texas. After eating foods like bell peppers, kale, and fresh berries for months at mealtimes, he started asking for them instead of traditional fast foods – he even turned down birthday cake at a friend’s party.
This radical shift convinced me to recruit Dr. Shreela Sharma, an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at UTHealth School of Public Health; Brian Green, CEO of the Houston Food Bank; and Mike Feinberg, co-founder of KIPP Public Charter Schools, to develop a similar co-op model for families living in the food deserts of Houston – areas of the city where access to healthy, affordable food is limited and fast food restaurants and convenience stores abound.
Together, Dr. Sharma and I developed a program to change food preferences in low-income children and families, increasing access to fruits and vegetables and nutrition education. For 16 weeks during the academic year and eight weeks in the summer, we deliver 30 pounds of 9-12 different types of free fresh produce each week to the families in our program so they can experiment with new foods without risk to their wallets; improve their eating habits; and, increase demand for more produce in their communities. We also provide every family with comprehensive nutrition handbooks, recipes, and tip sheets, and we support nutrition education lessons in the classroom.
Dr. Sharma has studied the impact of the program on our families, and the results are exciting: 98% of parents reported that their children ate more fruits and vegetables while participating in Brighter Bites; of those, 74% said they were able to maintain that increased level even after the Brighter Bites season ended. Brighter Bites is also saving our families approximately $38.00 per week on their grocery bill.
Over the past four years we have provided more than 6,000,000 pounds of produce to over 20,000 families at nearly 90 sites in three of the largest cities in Texas, including Head Start programs, elementary schools, middle schools, and after school programs.
Our end goal is changing the way people think about food: to understand that food equals health. This is bigger than just Brighter Bites. Will you join us in creating a new kind of fast food?
Our bodies are complex machines that use numerous vitamins and minerals as fuel. It can be difficult to keep track of all the nutrients your body needs. It is even more difficult to remember which vitamins and minerals work better together. Let’s take a look at IRON and VITAMIN C. Iron helps your red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body and transports carbon dioxide to your lungs (for you to breathe out). If you don’t have enough iron, then you may feel tired, grumpy, weak, and find yourself unable to concentrate. All of these are symptoms of a condition called anemia. Okay, so what about Vitamin C? This vitamin is an antioxidant found in citrus fruits. It acts as a healing agent to repair tissues. It also protects the body from damaging free radicals! What are free radicals? They are harmful oxidants that hinder your body from functioning properly, and that’s why antioxidants like Vitamin C are so important. How do IRON and VITAMIN C work together? Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron. Iron carries oxygen throughout your body. Oxygen fuels your body! Now that you know what IRON and VITAMIN C do and why they are important, let’s talk about where you can find them. Meat lovers can find iron in pork, ham, chicken, and fish. Vegetarians can find iron in beans, spinach, and lentils. Vitamin C is in oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, and pineapple. Why not drink a spinach and strawberry smoothie for breakfast or have chicken with pineapple salsa for lunch? That way you’ll be sure to not only feed your appetite, but you’ll also give your body the perfect pear of vitamins and minerals. The chart below highlights some basic information about a few essential vitamins. To learn more about vitamins and minerals take look at our Vitamins and Minerals board on Pinterest! Happy eating! 
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!
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!
Image courtesy of gotexan.org
Each fruit and vegetable has an optimal time of the year during which it grows the heartiest, tastiest, and most nutritious (ex. corn is grown in the summer, carrots are grown in the winter). For that reason we correlate certain crops to certain seasons. Eating with the seasons is not as commonplace as it was before food merchants started transporting fresh food across state lines, country borders, and oceans. However, if you choose to eat seasonally – eating food produced locally during the ideal growing season for that fruit or vegetable – you can reap multiple benefits. Here are just a few: 1. Seasonal produce tastes better and contains more nutrients. By growing fruits and vegetables during their optimal seasons, produce arrives to local grocery stores with maximum flavor, juicy textures, and the highest nutrient levels. If you see tomatoes at the grocery store during the winter, they might have been preserved with waxes or chemicals to make them seem bright red and plump. Even worse, they have most likely lost many nutrients if they were shipped from another country. However, if you buy tomatoes in the summer, they will taste sweet, contain maximum nutrients levels, and be preservative free. 2. Seasonal produce encourages sustainable practices. When fruits and vegetables are grown during their preferred season, they require fewer chemicals to keep them healthy (fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides) and less water to keep them hydrated. Energy savings occur too, since farmers use less of it to plant, harvest, and transport them for local sales. 3. Seasonal produce saves you money and supports the local economy. When farmers use fewer inputs to grow produce in season, you don’t have to pay as much. Even better, by purchasing local, seasonal produce, you can support farmers in/near your community and boost the local economy. If you live in Texas, check out this Texas produce availability chart. If you live out of the state, we recommend you search for a similar chart specific to where you live.