Brighter Bites

Brighter Bites is a Houston-based nonprofit founded in 2012 by Lisa Helfman and Dr. Shreela Sharma that delivers fresh fruits and vegetables directly into families’ hands, while teaching them how to use and choose a different kind of fast food. The mission of Brighter Bites is to Create Communities of Health through Fresh Food, and it accomplishes this mission through a three-step program of Food Access, Food Literacy, and Food Engagement. For 16 weeks during the school year and eight weeks during the summer, Brighter Bites provides 1) 30-35 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to each participating family 2) nutrition education consisting of handbooks, recipe cards, healthy tip sheets, and support for the implementation of a coordinated school health program, and 3) a fun food experience consisting of a healthy recipe tasting for everyone to try together when they pick up their produce at school dismissal. For several years, Lisa Helfman and her family took part in a weekly fruit and vegetable co-op, and she watched her children’s eating habits dramatically transform. So much so that her little boy turned down a piece of cake at a birthday party, craving instead the blueberries he’d grown fond of eating at home. She was inspired to replicate this type of positive change in underserved communities. Lisa’s vision was to bring a produce co-op to schools in these neighborhoods that included an educational component. She created a collaborative partnership between the Houston Food Bank and Dr. Shreela Sharma, an expert in nutrition and a professor of epidemiology at UTHealth School of Public Health, and they launched the program now known as Brighter Bites. Since its inception, Brighter Bites has delivered millions of pounds of fresh produce and nutrition education to children and families in Houston, Dallas, and Austin, TX as well as New York City. https://www.facebook.com/brighterbites https://twitter.com/BrighterBites https://www.instagram.com/brighterbites/