Keyword/Tag: Houston

Lani Alcazar Talks about CATCH on TV

Posted on July 31, 2016 by -

Lani on Univision_July 2016
This week, Lani Alcazar, a program coordinator for Brighter Bites in Houston, was invited to appear on Conexion Texas, a program that airs on Saturday and Sunday mornings on Univision all over the state of Texas. She and Dr. Joxel Garcia, Executive Director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Platform at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, spoke about the importance of teaching people about sun care protection.

At Brighter Bites, Lani and her colleagues teach nutrition lessons from CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health) during summer camp programs. This season they are including lessons from the Sunbeatables™ curriculum, which was developed by skin cancer experts at MD Anderson and aims to educate teachers, parents, and children about sun protection and promote sun safety behaviors in an effort to reduce children’s lifetime risk of developing skin cancer.

Watch the segment here to learn more!

It’s Hot. It’s Houston. It Must Be Summer!

Posted on June 9, 2016 by -

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School has only been out for a week and the Brighter Bites Houston staff began summer programming at 10 camps this week, serving approximately 1000 families.

No photos of our summer programming yet, but check out our Recipes page for some cool, healthy snacks!

Happy Summer!

The End of a Great School Year in Houston!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by -

houston skyline

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.

Using SNAP at Farmer’s Markets

Posted on August 5, 2015 by -

Did you know that some farmer’s markets accept SNAP? Now you can spice up your routine by taking the kids on a farmer’s market adventure! It’s a great way for the kiddos to learn directly from the farmers about the fruits and vegetables they love. A scavenger hunt [like the one found here] is sure to spark your kids’ enthusiasm for a normally boring errand. When you involve your kids in the selection process they are more invested in the final outcome: dinner! The produce found at farmer’s markets are usually fresher because local farmers sell what is in season. Ever notice why tomatoes in summer are so much more flavorful than ones bought in December? It’s all about the season. You can use SNAP benefits on other items such as bread, honey, meats, fish, poultry, dairy products, and seeds/plants that produce food too. Below is a list of SNAP friendly farmer’s markets in Houston, Dallas, and Austin HOUSTON:

  1. East End Market, 2600 Navigation Blvd
  2. Get Moving Houston Farmers Market (Magnolia), 7037 Capitol St
  3. Get Moving Houston Farmers Markets (Lyons HC), 5602 Lyons Ave
  4. Get Moving Houston Farmers Markets (Sunnyside), 4605 Wilmington St
  5. Palm Center Farmers Market, 5400 Beekman Rd

DALLAS:

  1. Dallas Farmers Market/Grow North Texas, 1010 S Pearl Expy
  2. Vickery Meadow Local Market, 5803 E Northwest Hwy
  3. White Rock Local Market At Lakeside, 9150 Garland Rd
  4. White Rock Local Market, Inc., 702 N Buckner Blvd

AUSTIN:

  1. Barton Creek Farmer Market , 2901 S Capital of TX Hwy
  2. F2m At Mueller Farmers Market, 4550 Mueller Blvd
  3. Hope Farmers Market, 412 Comal St
  4. Johnson’s Backyard Garden, 9515 Hergotz Lane
  5. SFC Farmers Market 6, 201 W Saint Elmo Rd
  6. SFC Farmers Market 7, 2200 Berkeley Ave
  7. SFC Farmers’ Market 5, 7500 S Pleasant Valley Rd
  8. SFC Farmers’ Market At Sunset Valley, 3200 Jones Rd
  9. Springdale Farm, 755 Springdale Rd
  10. Sustainable Food Center Farmers’ Market East, 2835 E MLK Jr Blvd

 

Free Activities for Kids

Posted on July 10, 2015 by -

Eating well is important, but staying physically active during the summer also promotes a healthy lifestyle. The following are a list of FREE activities in Houston, Dallas, and Austin that will keep your kids happy and healthy. HOUSTON:

  1. Free Bowling Daily– The Bowl on Bellaire (4191 Bellaire Blvd), Emerald Bowl (9307 Boone Rd), Copperfield Bowl (15615 Glen Chase Dr.), Times Square Entertainment (402 West Grand Parkway South). Register Online. Monday-Sunday. Times dependent on location. Ages 15 and under.
  2. Nature Story Time– 7112 Newcastle St, Wednesdays, 4pm.
  3. Free H2O Safe Swimming Classes– Ages 6-13. Locations all over Houston listed. July 14- July 24 and July 28- August 7. Time Dependent on Level and Location. Register online. Scroll down on the website for more information on levels and locations.
  4. Circus Arts Classes at Discovery Green – 1500 McKinney St, Wednesdays, 5:30-7PM. Ages 13 and up.
  5. Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark– 103 Sabine St, 7 days a week, 9am-10pm. Recommended age 10 and up.

DALLAS:

  1. Children’s Park at Klyde Warren Park– 2012 Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Daily, 6am-11pm. All ages.
  2. Creative Motion presented by Circus Freaks/Clown Gym– Midtown Gallery at Valley View Center (13331 Preston Road), Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8-10pm. Would recommend for kids ages 10 and up.
  3. Trinity River Audobon Center– 6500 Great Trinity Forest Way. Free every third Thursday; 9am-4pm. All ages.
  4. Spraygrounds– Locations vary throughout Dallas area. Daily, 10am-8pm. All ages.
  5. White Rock Lake Park– 8300 East Lawther Dr. Daily, 6am- midnight. All ages welcome but would recommend for older kids.

AUSTIN:

  1. Toddler Town in iPlay Austin – 8816 Cullen Lane, Monday: 12-8pm, Tuesday-Sunday: 10am-8pm. 3yr and under. (Free under 2yrs).
  2. Free Summer Playgrounds Program– Register at locations all around and in Austin. Monday-Thursday: 9am-5pm; Friday: 10am-5pm. Through August 7th.  Ages 6-12yrs.
  3. Hike St. Edwards Trail– 7301 Spicewood Springs Road, Open daily. All ages of children welcome depending on difficulty of trail.
  4. Free Swimming– Hours and days dependent on the many locations throughout Austin. All ages.
  5. Mayfield Park and Nature Preserve– 3505 W 35th St, Daily 5am-10pm. All ages.

Weekend Volunteers Kick off the Summer in Houston

Posted on June 12, 2015 by -

Brighter Bites Houston launched its third summer season with an especially exciting twist last weekend. We held a volunteering event at the Houston Food Bank utilizing our assembly line process to bag potatoes, onions, corn, and green beans in preparation for our first week of distributions.

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Typically we do bag everything onsite but for the first time we gave our parents and community members who aren’t available to volunteer during the work day a chance to contribute to the program in a new and different way. Not only did we meet new volunteers, but we also had the opportunity to work more closely with the Volunteer Productions Department at the Houston Food Bank. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of working in the carousel room at the Houston Food Bank you know how much fun we had last Saturday. Everyone is ready to work and have fun. Over 20 community volunteers helped us fill 456 bags of potatoes, onions, corn, and fresh green beans (about 15 lbs. apiece, if you’re counting, which we are). All of the bags were delivered on Tuesday to Gulfton Promise Head Start and Ripley House, two of the larger Brighter Bites sites in Houston. Having the produce pre-bagged helped to make the distributions run quite smoothly. We’re going to hold several more weekend volunteer events throughout the Brighter Bites seasons. Keep an eye out on Volunteer Match as well as the Houston Food Bank volunteer calendar.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far?

Posted on June 3, 2015 by -

Mike Pomeroy has been an integral part of the Brighter Bites roll out and development over the past three years in his work at the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at the UT School of Public Health, where he worked closely with Brighter Bites Co-Founder Shreela Sharma, PhD. Mike has had an interest in improving food access and reducing food insecurity since beginning his time as a Master’s student at the UT School of Public Health in Houston. He lobbied for improved national school lunch standards in 2010 as an intern with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and worked with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign in 2012. He has also served on Houston ISD’s School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) for the past 3 years. Mike obtained his Masters of Public Health in 2010 with an emphasis in health policy, and worked with the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living from 2008-2015 on multiple health promotion research projects, including the pilot project that launched Brighter Bites. Mike is excited to join the Brighter Bites team full time in this capacity, and looks forward to overseeing the expansion and strengthening of the program.