Serving up a Great Summer in Austin with Andy Roddick Foundation and Others

In the summer of 2015, Brighter Bites began its programming for the first time in Austin in two summer camps at Sunrise Community Church and El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission. This summer, Brighter Bites is back to serve the families at these two camps in addition to the families at three new sites! We are excited to begin partnerships with Mainspring Schools, East Communities YMCA, and the Andy Roddick Foundation’s Summer Learning Program at Pecan Springs Elementary. Every week, Brighter Bites works with approximately 290 families at these five sites throughout south and northeast Austin.

Summer is a wonderful time to eat fresh fruits and veggies and our families have already seen an abundance of leafy greens, juicy citrus, and beautiful melons (and more!) thanks to our new partnership with Sysco Freshpoint in San Antonio. In addition to receiving beautiful produce every week, the families have so far been able to taste-test mango salsas, kale and fruit smoothies, and fresh salads as they picked up their bags of fruit and veggies. We love when we hear the following week that parents and kids went home and replicated some of the recipes they tasted at the distribution.

Even in addition to produce distributions and recipe tastings, Brighter Bites supports the implementation of the CATCH Kid’s Club and CATCH Early Childhood programs at our summer sites. The Brighter Bites program coordinators and interns have been teaching CATCH nutrition lessons for kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade every week at the camps at Sunrise and El Buen, and the instructors at Mainspring Schools and at the camps at Andy Roddick Foundation and East Communities YMCA are teaching the lessons themselves. The kids learn about GO, SLOW, and WHOA foods and drinks through songs, games, and other fun hands-on activities. The fruits and veggies in the Brighter Bites bags are also used by instructors as a tool during the lessons to help kids learn and start talking about the type of foods they’ll be taking home that week!

Besides connecting us to new families throughout Austin, our new site partnerships this summer have connected us with many new volunteer groups and individuals. We are so happy to see mother-son pairs from the Young Men’s Service League, parent-child pairs from Little Helping Hands, the Andy Roddick Foundation’s Leadership Council, 4-H Capital AmeriCorps members, and many other volunteers from the community at our sites every week. Brighter Bites can never say it enough: We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our volunteers! Thank you!

Brighter Bites Austin is looking forward to connecting more with our families through healthy eating habits during the rest of the summer!