BRIGHTER BITES
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Mission Statement
The Brighter Bites mission is to create communities of health through fresh food. We run a three-pronged, evidence-based intervention program that delivers fresh produce directly into the hands of underserved families, teaches them how to use it, and tracks their behavior change. Our ultimate goal is to increase demand for and sustainable consumption of fresh produce in order to curb the childhood obesity epidemic and improve long-term health outcomes among low-income children and their families.
About This Cause
The Brighter Bites mission is to create communities of health through fresh food. We are a comprehensive, multi-component school, preschool, and after-school (hereafter, “sites”) program that increases access to fresh fruits and vegetables combined with nutrition education for obesity prevention and better health outcomes among low-income children and their families. Our goal is to help curb the childhood obesity epidemic by increasing the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables, leading to improved family eating habits and ultimately improved health outcomes. How it all started: For several years, our founder Lisa Helfman and her family participated in a weekly produce co-op, and during that time her children's eating habits changed dramatically. So much so that her son turned down a piece of cake at a birthday party, asking for fruit instead. Like most mothers, Lisa realized this was a significant decision for a six year old, and she wondered what kind of influence regular access to fresh fruits and vegetables might have on all children, especially if it was free. She was inspired to replicate this in Houston's underserved communities, identified as "food deserts," where access to grocery stores stocked with a plentiful array of fresh produce is limited and childhood obesity rates are high. Because nutrition education is often equally lacking, Lisa's vision was to bring a produce co-op to schools in these areas that included an educational component, and to make it fun. Lisa then engaged behavioral epidemiologist Dr. Shreela Sharma and her team at UTHealth School of Public Health (“UTHealth”), who operationalized the program elements – developing the formula, education materials, and research/evaluation framework. She then sought out the Houston Food Bank, which agreed to be Brighter Bites’ logistics partner – aggregating, warehousing, and delivering produce to the schools. Thus, Brighter Bites was born. Today, the non-profit delivers programming in six cities across the country – Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, Washington D.C., and Southwest Florida – and has delivered over 16 million pounds of produce and hundreds of thousands of nutrition education materials to over 200,000 people. Born in the kitchen of our founder, catalyzed by participation in a produce co-op, and operationalized at UTHealth, Brighter Bites is a nonprofit that creates communities of health through fresh food with the goal of changing behavior among children and their families. We are an evidence-based, multi-component elementary school, preschool, after school, and summer camp program that provides access to fruits and vegetables, nutrition education, and consistent exposure to recipes and messages that feature fresh food. Our goal is to help curb the childhood obesity epidemic by increasing the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables, leading to improved family eating habits and ultimately improved health outcomes of those we serve. We make this happen in three steps: Produce Distribution - For eight weeks each in the fall, spring, and summer, Brighter Bites distributes fresh, seasonal produce for participants to pick up and take home when they pick up their child. Each week, families receive two bags containing 50 servings (~25 lbs) of a variety of fruits and vegetables; our aim is to grow demand for produce by purposefully channeling it into ‘low-access’ communities. Parents also volunteer at baggings and distributions, which builds community engagement and an ownership component to our co-op. Nutrition Education - We train and support teachers in schools, camps, and educational centers to implement CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health), an evidence-based coordinated school health nutrition education program approved for classrooms across the United States), with their students. Parents also receive weekly educational tools with their bags, including nutrition handbooks, recipes, and tip-sheets, in order to demystify produce. Fun Food Experience - During weekly produce pickups, Brighter Bites staff and volunteers create a fun food experience for the whole family, demonstrating colorful recipes, passing out samples that incorporate that the week’s fresh produce, and discussing healthy eating habits. (*All three steps done on a weekly basis for continuity)* We launched our program in 2012, serving 150 families in one Houston school; since then, we have grown our presence to six cities in four states, and together with our partners have distributed more than 26 million pounds of produce and hundreds of thousands of nutrition education materials to over 300,000 individuals (representing 60,000 low-income children and their families, as well as teachers, and school administrators). During this time, Brighter Bites has proven that its program drives consumption, improves long-term health outcomes, and creates systemic change: from growing demand at the store, to changing the school and home environments, to tackling food waste and converting it into an impactful public health opportunity, all in an effort to empower families to achieve better health. Alongside UTHealth we study every family that participates in Brighter Bites, and our data shows that we are making a demonstrable impact on the school and home environments:. 98% of parents reported that their children ate more fruits and vegetables while participating in Brighter Bites; Of those, 74% of those said they were able to maintain that increased level of consumption after the Brighter Bites season ended. This means that families are buying more produce on their own in order to maintain their increased fruit and vegetable intake even after the program ends. Brighter Bites is theoretically grounded, evidence-based, and data driven. When co-founder Dr. Shreela Sharma operationalized the formula for Brighter Bites, it was grounded in Social Cognitive Theory constructs to produce behavior change. From 2013-2015, under the leadership of Dr. Sharma, UTHealth conducted a two-year evaluation of Brighter Bites across six schools that received the Brighter Bites program, and six schools that implemented CATCH only (760 parent-child dyads). Results of the study demonstrated that, as compared to children and families that did not receive Brighter Bites, those participating in Brighter Bites reported: Significant increases in servings of fruits and vegetables consumed Significant increases in serving more fruits and vegetables as snacks A significant decrease in added sugars consumed among children A two-fold increase in cooking meals using basic ingredients Significant increase in eating meals together as a family, and serving more produce as part of those meals, and A two-fold increase in using nutrition labels to guide grocery purchasing decisions for the family. Subsequently, in 2017-2018, UTHealth investigators conducted a two-year follow-up study of the 2013-2015 cohort and preliminary results demonstrate that Brighter Bites families had an estimated sustained consumption of ~19 more servings of fruits and vegetables each week, or over 900 additional servings per family per year (Sharma et al., unpublished data). Our programming is sustainable due to a unique blend of partnerships: on the public side, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (through our SNAP-Ed grants); in the private sector, with distributors such as Sysco/Fresh Point, and retailers such as H-E-B; with nonprofits, such as Feeding America Food Banks in Houston, Dallas, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Ft Myers, FL; and in academia, with UTHealth, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Baylor College of Medicine, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. We also have the support of large-scale farms, as well as the Produce Marketing Association. These collaborations are particularly relevant because we have leveraged on the existing expertise of our partners and further optimized them to create systems and behavior change.