News Type: Program Highlights

Meet our Southwest Florida Staff

Posted on April 4, 2019 by -

In Southwest Florida, Brighter Bites has a small but productive team of three staff members whose impressive teamwork has helped their program’s schools, students, and parents feel like one big family.

L to R: Program Associate Mariana Coronado, Program Director Marcela Romero, and Program Coordinator Rosmery Garcia

Program Director Marcela Romero has been with the program since its introduction to Southwest Florida. Marcela wore all the program’s hats and performed all necessary tasks while growing Brighter Bites during its first season. Her leadership has been integral to creating an empowering working environment for her two counterparts, who always feel encouraged to contribute their ideas to better the program.  You can learn more about Marcela and her experience with Brighter Bites here.

Program Coordinator Rosmery Garcia joined the Brighter Bites team in September 2018. Rosmery uses her creative strengths to engage our families, teachers, and community in unique and exciting distribution experiences each week. We’re so lucky to have her on our team!

Program Associate Mariana Coronado was introduced to our program as a parent volunteer. She quickly became an integral part of our program by using her great organization and leadership skills during the bagging process. Mariana always goes above and beyond to ensure that produce is counted and bagged correctly. She’s an absolute superstar with our volunteers, whom she guides through baggings each week.

Thank you to our amazing team in Southwest Florida!

It’s our Spring 2019 Avocado Week!

Posted on March 1, 2019 by -

It’s Avocado Week at Brighter Bites!

Brighter Bites is celebrating its third bi-annual Avocado Week with our friends at Avocados From Mexico and Del Monte Fresh, who generously donated 27,823 avocados to Brighter Bites cities across the nation. All Brighter Bites families are going home with two Hass avocados in their weekly produce bags, along with nutrition education materials, and plenty of recipe inspiration!

Hass avocados are the only avocados in the world that are available 365 days a year. These beauties — which are technically berries! — are packed with nearly 20 vitamins and minerals and are naturally free of sodium and cholesterol. Avocados are also a great source of fiber and unsaturated fat, which means they’ll keep you full for a long time!

Del Monte Fresh made a special effort to donate green avocados to our families to avoid the fruit ripening too fast over the course of the week. Pro tip: next time you’re doing the grocery shopping, look for a firm, green avocado if you want it to use it later in the week. If you need to speed up the ripening process, try placing the avocado in a brown paper bag with a banana for 1-3 days!

Del Monte Fresh’s nationwide network of distribution centers stepped up to make sure Brighter Bites received all of our avocados in time for Avocado Week. Special thanks to Del Monte Dallas, Del Monte Houston, Del Monte Philadelphia, Del Monte Baltimore, and Del Monte Fort Lauderdale for playing an integral part in Avocado Week!

We are so grateful to Avocados From Mexico for generously supporting Avocado Week and to Del Monte Fresh for their generous donation of so much fruit! We love celebrating avocados and look forward to many more avocados weeks to come.

Behind the Scenes: Brighter Bites in Washington, D.C.

Posted on February 25, 2019 by -

In the fall of 2017, Brighter Bites launched in our fifth city. Earlier that summer, we had expanded our program beyond Texas (where we had established programs in Houston, Dallas, and Austin) and to the East Coast, where we began programming in New York City (read all about our NYC program here). After expanding to NYC, the most populous city in the United States, it was exciting to bring Brighter Bites to another iconic city: Washington, D.C.

By operating the Brighter Bites program in D.C. – right in the backyard of congressional representatives – we are provided with a unique opportunity to invite our nation’s policy makers to see our three-part model in person.

Two important partnerships have provided the foundation for success for Brighter Bites in D.C.

The first crucial partnership is with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), a nationall- innovative food bank and the leading champion of hunger relief in the D.C. metro region for decades. Brighter Bites’ Washington, D.C. office is located at the CAFB. “We feel like a part of the Food Bank community,” says Tara McNerney, Washington, D.C.’s Brighter Bites Program Director. “They’ve fully integrated us with the staff, operations, and planning there, and it’s been so helpful to our collaboration!” The CAFB provides half of the produce needed for the Brighter Bites program, as well as storage and transportation of the produce to schools. It was also CAFB that identified Prince George’s County, Maryland (which borders D.C.) as an ideal place for Brighter Bites to launch our D.C. program in its initial years. CAFB’s Hunger Heat Map  identified this area as one of high food insecurity with fewer hunger relief resources flowing to it. Brighter Bites is happy to help bridge that gap!

Pamela Boozer-Strother, District 3 Prince George’s County Public School Board of Education member recently visited a Brighter Bites produce bagging at Cool Spring Elementary School and was highly enthusiastic about the arrival of Brighter Bites to Prince George’s County. She commented that “nutrition is increasingly understood as a very important issue” by the education sector, and that “Brighter Bites is joining a really strong and effective group of nonprofits working with our students.” Read the full interview with Pamela here.

The second crucial partnership for the D.C. Brighter Bites program is with The Coastal Companies Foundation. Its subsidiary, Coastal Sunbelt Produce, is the mid-Atlantic’s leading food service distributor of produce, and they value Brighter Bites’ mission to build long-lasting healthy habits in children and their families. “The fact that the Brighter Bites model is rooted in data that shows quantifiable results really appeals to us” said Jaci Daly, a Coastal buyer and Brighter Bites’ primary liaison to the company. Coastal provides the D.C. program with the other half of our produce. Each week they send four unique produce varieties, items as unusual and exciting as persimmons, celery root, Asian pears, and even edible flowers! The families participating in Brighter Bites in Prince George’s County are exposed to so many new fruits and vegetables thanks to our partnership with Coastal!

In partnership with CAFB and Coastal, Brighter Bites has delivered more than 250,000 pounds of produce to over 1,000 families in Prince George’s County, MD, in the past year. We get feedback about Brighter Bites from our participating families all the time. One parent recently told us, “It’s very helpful to me because I was able to change my eating habits. I’ve become health conscious.” Another said, “For me, it was a great help, because I was able to try thing that I’ve never tried and that I cannot buy.”

Recently CAFB’s new CEO, Radha Muthiah, paid a visit to the state-of-the-art Coastal facility with Tara McNerney, Brighter Bites Program Director. They were excited to discuss with Coastal the plan to expand our programs to even more schools in Prince George’s County next year!

To learn more about our D.C. program, check out the spotlight on our Washington, D.C. team here.

By Tara McNerney, Program Director, Brighter Bites Washington, D.C.

A Special Visit in Washington, D.C.

Posted on February 25, 2019 by -

One cold and rainy December day in Washington, D.C., Brighter Bites had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Prince George’s County Public School District 3 Board of Education member, Pamela Boozer-Strother.  Upon arriving at Cool Spring Elementary, a school in Adelphi, MD, Pamela immediately rolled up her sleeves and jumped right in to lend a hand alongside the family volunteers who were in the midst of bagging produce. Later we gave her the full orientation to our program and nutrition education materials, and she had the opportunity to speak with several school staff and participating parents. We reconnected with Pamela afterwards to get her thoughts on the program:

In what ways do the services provided by Brighter Bites align with the Board of Education’s goals for Prince George’s County schools?

“Number one, it aligns with our community engagement and the new Prince George’s County Community Schools Policy to work with a wide variety of nonprofits and organizations that want to bring services to our students.” She remarked that “Brighter Bites is joining an already really strong and effective group of nonprofits working with our students,” and noted that “nutrition is increasingly understood as a very important issue” by people working in education.

Why do you think free produce and nutrition education is important for students and families?

“I think what it comes down to is teachers and administrators want to do what they can to make sure a student enters the classroom ready to learn. We as a society recognized a long time ago that we should be providing free and reduced price lunch and breakfast, and this is the next step in achieving our vision of healthy children ready to learn and succeed.”

What do you think will be the greatest impact Brighter Bites will have on Prince George’s County schools and families?

“From my experience I saw that it was empowering students to be active in the families’ decisions in what they should eat. And also what Brighter Bites does is make deciding what the family should eat a family activity. It’s true family engagement because it’s designed for children to learn in the classroom and for parents to take home the information and to engage together in learning.”

How do you see Brighter Bites and the public school system developing our partnership in the future?

“There’s certainly greater demand from our schools than what Brighter Bites might be able to meet right now. You’ll see more and more PGCPS schools applying as they hear about the program!”

Thank you Pamela for your service to the students and families of Prince George’s County! Brighter Bites is thrilled to be building communities of health in Prince George’s County and to have the support of its elected officials.

 

By Tara McNerney, Program Director, Brighter Bites Washington, D.C.

Meet our D.C. Staff!

Posted on February 25, 2019 by -

Brighter Bites has an amazing team leading our program in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area!

Program Director Tara McNerney has lived in D.C. for nearly eight years and was thrilled to join Brighter Bites in November 2017. Her background in food, sustainability, and education prepared her to implement the Brighter Bites three-pillared program. Read Tara’s full bio here.

Program Coordinator Carolina Moppett brings to her role excellent skills as an educator and communicator. She is fully bilingual (her family is from Argentina and Uruguay), which is helpful to our team because many of our families in Prince George’s County speak only Spanish. Read Carolina’s full bio here.

Tara and Carolina are joined by part-time program associates Rajni Sood Laurent and Tamirra Glover. Rajni has a background in public health, education, and international affairs and has a deep passion for improving the health of Prince George’s County, where she resides with her family and sends her children to school.

Tamirra is an associate and part-time intern for Brighter Bites. She is studying for her master’s of science in health education and promotion at Marymount University in Arlington, VA,  and is contributing to several projects benefiting our program while gaining on-the-ground experience with Brighter Bites.

Every Tuesday the whole team congregates at the Capital Area Food Bank’s (CAFB) warehouse and educational kitchen, where the team’s office is located. Tara and Rajni lead a group of CAFB volunteers in moving up to 10,000 pounds of produce to build the pallets for our schools that week — a true muscle-building task! Tamirra and Carolina are meanwhile in the CAFB kitchen preparing a recipe for families to taste test at our distributions.

David Washington, Ronald McLendon, Henry Davis, and Lorenzo Wright are four CAFB employees who work in the warehouse and contribute their time, care, and expertise in forklift operation to the Brighter Bites program. We could not do it without them!

Our family volunteers – too numerous to name individually – also make the program a success by bagging the produce once it arrives at the schools. Not only do they functionally make the program run, but they also make our Brighter Bites team smile with their enthusiasm!

 

Brighter Bites is so fortunate to have our team and partners working hand-in-hand to build communities of health in the nation’s capital and surrounding area. Visit our volunteer page to find out how you can pitch in!

 

By Tara McNerney, Program Director, Brighter Bites Washington, D.C.

Staff Spotlight: Melanie Button

Posted on January 29, 2019 by -

Meet Melanie!

In July of 2017, Melanie Button joined Brighter Bites as program director for Brighter Bites in NYC to help us launch our first program outside of Texas. We love having Melanie on our staff and wanted you to have the chance to get to know her better! We asked Melanie all about her experience working with Brighter Bites and her favorite things to do off the job. Check out Melanie’s responses below!

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What inspired you to join Brighter Bites?

I previously worked for our partner, City Harvest, delivering nutrition education programs including CATCH [Coordinated Approach to Child Health]. When Brighter Bites approached City Harvest about expanding to NYC, I was part of the team that explored whether it would be a viable partnership. Everyone on both sides was excited for the potential partnership, but it took a few months to figure out the logistics of running the program in NYC. During that time, I fell in love with Brighter Bites’ mission of creating communities of health through fresh food and its data driven approach to doing so. I was thrilled to be hired as program director and have the opportunity to oversee the launch of the first city outside of Texas.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My background is in education. I’m a certified New York State teacher and have spent most of my career working in schools in one way or another. I love empowering teachers at our Brighter Bites schools to be a vehicle for change for their students. Hearing from the teachers about the lessons they are doing in the classrooms with the fruits and veggies or how much they enjoy delivering our CATCH program really makes my day. And, of course, the impact on our families is what fills me up every day. My favorite is when a produce item really catches on with our families. This summer we received bok choy donations for a few weeks in a row. I had so many families tell me that it was brand new to them when we first distributed it but that their children had grown to love it to the point that they were now purchasing it on their own.

Melanie Button and City Harvest driver Ade McCoy

What is your favorite produce item?

I love avocados! I would eat avocado toast for every meal. What can I say, I’m a Brooklynite! Through our partnership with Avocados From Mexico we were able to provide avocados to all our Brighter Bites families last year which was super exciting for our families and staff.

Do you any favorite recipes to share (Brighter Bites or otherwise!)?

It took me 25+ years to learn to like cauliflower, but now I love it! Our Sneaky Mashed Potatoes are a great way to introduce this flavor to your kids.

Where did you grow up?

My father was career Army, so our family moved every 2-3 years. I was born in Germany and lived there as a young child as well as through middle school. My parents instilled a love of travel in my sister and me, and I feel so lucky to have seen so much of the world before I was even a teenager. I still have a serious travel bug!

What activities did you do as a child/teenager (sports, clubs, instruments, etc.)?

I was a huge bookworm. When we lived abroad, it was harder to get English books for kids. We visited London semi-regularly, and I would spend hours in bookstores trying to pick out which ones to bring back with us. I would have filled a whole suitcase if I could!

What would we most likely find you doing outside of work?

I’m an exercise junkie. If I go two or three days without working out I feel stressed and unsettled. I used to be a distance runner and have completed 5 marathons and 12+ half marathons, but lately I am finding a solid 30 minutes a day is just right.

What is your favorite thing about living in New York?

Living in New York usually means agreeing to live in a smaller space. I actually value this a lot. It forces you to get out and explore the city. Instead of backyards, we have so many beautiful parks including my favorite, Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn.

Do you have any local attraction or restaurant recommendations?

Right now, all our program locations are in the borough of Queens which is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world! My staff and I are always eager to explore new flavors and cuisines on our lunch breaks. A staff favorite is Arepas Grill in Astoria which serves Venezuelan specialties. This year, my goal is to explore the many Tibetan and Nepalese restaurants in Jackson Heights and find the best momos (traditional dumplings), which is a hotly contested title.

Any family or friends you want to introduce us to?

My husband Tommy is the true chef in our family! He grew up in Texas, and his family is originally from Louisiana, so he brings southern flavors into our home. He made jambalaya for me on our second date and it was pretty much a done deal. We are both overly obsessed with our dog Homer who we rescued from a shelter 3 years ago. He really rules our roost, but we would not have it any other way.

Where is/has been your favorite place to visit/travel to?

My husband and I love road trips! When you are driving through new places, it feels like the travel is just as exciting as the destination. Some of our favorite itineraries have been Utah and the western national parks, the Dalmatian coast exploring Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, and our most recent trip through Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. I hated learning to drive manual as a teenager but my parents were right – it is a skill I now highly value!

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Thanks for everything you do Melanie!

NYC Intern Spotlight

Posted on January 29, 2019 by -

We are incredibly lucky to host interns from a variety of internship and workforce development programs in New York City, and we’re highlighting their dedication to our program!

This past summer, we hosted Abigail Salazar, a high school intern who was focusing on culinary education and skills through Careers through Culinary Arts Program (CCAP). From their website: “The Careers through Culinary Arts Program is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization that promotes and provides foodservice career opportunities for underserved youth through culinary arts education and employment.”

L to R: Abigail Salazar, Keme Fofana at IS 10Q

We also hosted Christopher Jackson for 10 weeks through the Queens Connect Internship Program, which provides young adults with a “six-week work readiness training period where they learn skills such as time management, interview preparation, decision making, and communication. They also gain hands-on culinary training from a world-renowned chef and prepare for the New York City Department of Health’s Food Protection Certification Exam.”

Christopher Jackson with parent volunteer at PS 151Q

We additionally provide internships to students from local colleges and universities. Some of our stellar fieldwork students have included included Keme Fofana, who interned with Brighter Bites to complete her requirements for her undergraduate degree in Community Health at SUNY Potsdam, Jamie Maldonado from Lehman College who was our weekly Fun Food Experience chef at PS 228Q, and Monique Huntley from Brooklyn College, who supported our bagging and distribution at PS 234Q.

L to R: Jamie Maldonado and Christopher Jackson at PS 151Q

It is such a pleasure to work with all our amazing students as they prepare for careers in public health!

 

Special Contributor: Melanie Button, Program Director, Brighter Bites NYC

Brighter Bites NYC – Behind the Scenes

Posted on January 29, 2019 by -

When Brighter Bites was founded in 2012 in Houston, TX, we had big dreams for our organization. We knew that food illiteracy and a lack of access to fresh produce for low-income families didn’t stop at the Texas border, and we wanted to create communities of health through fresh food everywhere we could go. In the fall 2017, after celebrating our organization’s fifth birthday, we took our program out of Texas for the first time and to the biggest city of them all — New York City.

In preparation for our big move, we worked hard to make sure we could have the same impact in New York City that we’d replicated in so many Houston, Dallas, and Austin schools. While our program’s core, three-part formula of produce distribution, nutrition education, and a fun food experience didn’t need to change, we had a few logistical details to work out to be able to deliver our signature eight to twelve varieties of fresh produce to all our families in such a densely populated area.

Our first step was finding New York-based partners who believed in our organization just as much as we did. Melanie Button, our program director in NYC, introduced us to some of the incredible friends and partners we’ve made in NYC.

“Expanding to the Big Apple was definitely a match made in heaven, thanks to the wealth of partners we’ve been able to work with. In New York, our core partner is City Harvest, NYC’s largest food rescue organization, who will distribute 61 million pounds of food across the city this year, almost half of which will be produce. Brighter Bites is able to select donations from their incredible inventory to send to our school locations. New York City is also the largest school district in the country with over 1.1 million students and 1,700 schools. By programming here, Brighter Bites has an opportunity to impact thousands of families over the next few years as we build a community of health across the five boroughs.

“Of course, our families are our most important partners, without whom we could not work. Our support from parent volunteers has been incredible, with some sites clocking in at 90+ volunteers each week in what may be an unofficial Brighter Bites record. Our program truly takes a village and we simply couldn’t do it  without the support of all these individuals and organizations.

“D’Arrigo is the cherry on top of our produce – literally! I will never forget the multiple pallets of cherries they sent during our first few weeks of programming during the summer of 2017, leading our families to call distribution days ‘Fruity Fridays.’ As we’ve grown in NYC, they continue to support our program by sending weekly donations of perishable, high-value items such as plums, bell peppers, and berries that are traditionally harder for our food bank partners to source. We are so grateful for the generosity of D’Arrigo which allows our families to receive an exciting mix of fruits and veggies each week!”

Of course, our NYC program wouldn’t be the same without its leader and program director, Melanie Button. Read our spotlight on Melanie here!

Brighter Bites NYC Program Director Melanie Button and City Harvest driver Ade McCoy

Melanie is supported by Program Coordinator KayJoon Quispe, Program Associates Judy Hsu, Amina Khawja, and Brianne Ross, and an amazing group of interns and dedicated students (read about them here). The team operates Brighter Bites at five public schools in Queens. Check out which ones here.

Program Coordinator KayJoon Quispe

 

Group photo of staff holiday luncheon at WeWork. L to R back row: PD Melanie Button, PA Judy Hsu, PA Brianne Ross, PA Amina Khawja, Lisa Helfman, Intern Christopher Jackson, Front Row: City Harvest warehouse specialist Kim Conchada, PC Kayjoon Quispe

Many City Harvest staff members have also gone above and beyond to support Brighter Bites. Derrick Smalls is a second generation City Harvest employee and drives the City Harvest truck to deliver all our produce and is truly incredible to work with week after week. Kim Conchada is City Harvest’s volunteer services warehouse specialist. She oversees all our warehouse needs, including assessing produce quality to ensure we have the right tip-sheets and nutrition materials in our bags each week. Every week she leads a team of four to five volunteers in building custom pallets for Brighter Bites schools at City Harvest’s food rescue facility. Usually this means breaking down and re-building 10,000+ lbs. of fruits and veggies!

Derrick Smalls, City Harvest driver, pictured with Program Associate Judy Hsu

 

Picture L to R: Luis Montoya, Kim Conchada, Patricia Burt, Ivette Fematt, Sharon Wanamaker

Another amazing City Harvest staff member, Comen Ammonds, is a distribution center associate at City Harvest’s Food Rescue Facility, where he is responsible for many tasks, including receiving and storing produce donations, loading and off-loading City Harvest and agency trucks, and repacking of bulk produce. Comen has been one of Brighter Bites’ biggest supporters at City Harvest from the beginning of our partnership and helped train our staff on all things warehouse. He continues to support our weekly pallet builds, ensuring all Brighter Bites families are able to get quality items in their bags each week.

City Harvest Distribution Center Associate Comen Ammonds

With real estate so hard to come by in NYC, our staff opted to office out of a shared WeWork space in the historic Brewster Building, which is also home to JetBlue’s headquarters. JetBlue has volunteered over 10 times and sent close to 100 employees to help bag produce at our schools since July 2018.

JetBlue employees volunteering at a Brighter Bites bagging

We are so excited to continue creating communities of health through fresh produce in NYC. To learn more about how you can volunteer at a Brighter Bites program near you, click here.

 

Special Contributor: Melanie Button, Program Director, Brighter Bites NYC

Staff Spotlight: Stefanie Cousins

Posted on December 18, 2018 by -

Meet Stefanie!

Stefanie Cousins is the Brighter Bites director of marketing and communications, leading the organization’s corporate communications, strategic marketing, and branding efforts out of our program office in Austin, TX. Stefanie has been an irreplaceable force in the development of our website, video production, press outreach, and recent expansion into three new markets. We are so grateful to have her on our staff!

Stefanie grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and has called nearly 10 other places home including Middlebury (VT), Italy, Washington, DC, New York City, Chapel Hill (NC), Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston, and Austin. As a child, Stefanie was an avid tennis, lacrosse, and violin player. Prior to working with Brighter Bites, Stefanie had a long career in the news and documentary business, and was a producer for Barbara Walters at ABC News 20/20.

We recently sat down with Stefanie to ask about her experience working with Brighter Bites:

Q: When did you join Brighter Bites?
A: In fall 2014 I began volunteering for Brighter Bites to help with its marketing and communications efforts and discovered that a friend in Austin was interested in helping Brighter Bites expand. I introduced her to [our Founders] Lisa and Shreela, and the rest is history. I was the program director in Austin for about six months while running marketing and communications, until we found Maggie Mangrum to take over and I could focus on developing a marketing and communications strategy for all of Brighter Bites. 

Q: What inspired you to join Brighter Bites?
A: I have always been interested in nutrition and understood the connection between food and health from a young age. I started off college thinking I was going to be a doctor, until I realized that I preferred to read and write about health issues more than anything else. I began to focus on it from the journalistic perspective, writing and producing a number of stories over the years, including a documentary for the The New York Times and National Geographic about the obesity epidemic. Prior to hearing about Brighter Bites, I was already laser-focused on feeding my two children nothing but fresh, healthy food — I had been eating a plant-based diet for a decade and had made all of my children’s baby food from scratch. When I first met Lisa, she had just finished up the first week bagging up fruits and veggies in Houston with Shreela and a team of friends and colleagues. A mutual friend had introduced us and thought we would hit it off. She was right! From the minute I met Lisa and heard about Brighter Bites, before it was even called Brighter Bites, I knew I wanted to contribute in some way so that I could help bring the mission and the message of Brighter Bites to as many people as possible.  

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: I am deeply passionate about Brighter Bites and I love to talk about our program all the time because it works and because it’s needed in so many places. Going to graduate school for public health 10 years ago really opened up my eyes to the multitude of preventable health problems that far too many people face around the globe. Brighter Bites is one of the solutions and I see the positive impact we’re having on people across the country every day. It was always a dream of mine to combine my interest in health with my career in marketing and communications. I feel so fortunate that I get to do it everyday!

When Stefanie’s not wearing her marketing and communications hat, you’ll likely find her spending time with her family, composed of husband Kurt and children Ben (10) and Katherine (7). Stefanie loves spending time in the kitchen making dishes that are filled with fruits and veggies, like sweet potato curry. You’ll also frequently find Stefanie exploring Austin, which she loves for its friendly and welcoming people. If you’re in the Austin area, Stefanie recommends visiting Uchiko for a scrumptious meal.

Thanks for all you do Stefanie!

 

Pictured left to right: Stefanie Cousins, Lisa Helfman, and Shreela Sharma.