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A decade of creating communities of health through fresh food: Brighter Bites frameworks and strategies

March 1, 2023 – ASNNA Virtual Conference

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Make it Great

Fill the Plate

Create a fun food experience for everyone involved.

Produce Distribution

(50 servings/week)

Fun Food Experience (recipe tasting)

Nutrition Education

(school & home)

Educate

Teach kids and families healthy ways to use the food.

Bring fresh produce to where kids already are.

Measure Outcomes to Determine Impact

THE BRIGHTER BITES FORMULA

all three done on a weekly basis for continuity

90 SECONDS

Brighter Bites is a national non-profit and behavior change organization with a mission to create communities of health through fresh food. We do this through a three-part formula: produce distribution, nutrition education, and a fun food experience.

Fill the plate – distribute up to 20 pounds of produce 16 times throughout the school year; often sourcing donated produce

Educate – through a train-the-trainer model and using the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) curriculum, teachers implement at least 8 nutrition lessons throughout the school year

Make it great – we conduct recipe demos and tastings throughout the school year

By pairing consistent access to fruits and vegetables with in-classroom education for children and fun, useful resources for parents to help them utilize the produce – we offer a model that improves eating behavior and reduces food insecurity.

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SINCE WE STARTED IN 2012, BRIGHTER BITES…

has provided over 50 million pounds of produce and over 150,000 nutrition education lessons taught

to over 500,000 families who have participated in the program

throughout ten cities across the country

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LEVERAGING THE STRENGTHS OF OUR PARTNERS

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LEVERAGING THE STRENGTHS OF OUR PARTNERS

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BRIGHTER BITES IMPACTS FAMILIES

Children and parents who did receive brighter Bites demonstrated…

HEALTHIER SNACKING

Significant increase in serving more fruits and vegetables as snacks.

HEALTHIER HABITS

Significant increase in amounts of fruits and vegetables consumed.

LESS ADDED SUGAR

Significant decrease in amount of added sugars consumed among children.

Research & Results – as compared to those in the study’s control group (not receiving Brighter Bites) S.V. Sharma et al. / Preventive Medicine 91 (2016) 8-17

90 SECONDS

One of our founding partners is UTHealth – The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston – who leads our research and evaluation, the second strategy we’re discussing today.

Brighter Bites programming is we are research informed – we answer two questions on an ongoing basis through process and outcome measurement:

Are we implementing as planned?
Does Brighter Bites actually change behaviors and build demand for fresh produce in the communities that we serve?

We answer these questions through collection of pre- and post-surveys assessing families’ eating behaviors, as well as tracking family participation in produce distribution and schools’ CATCH implementation.

Our research and evaluation has shown that Brighter Bites participants:

Eat more fruits and vegetables as snacks
Eat more fruits and vegetables overall
Consume less added sugar

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Over the 2018-2019 school year, 98% of the parents reported that their family ate more F&V during the program, and of those, 96% said they were able to maintain that increased level of consumption after the program ended.

Brighter Bites families received an average of 57 servings of fruits and vegetables each week, which costs the program ~$10 per family per week.

Participating families reported attending 7 of 8 available distributions on average in each

of the fall and spring semesters.

SUSTAINED CONSUMPTION

LOW PROGRAM COSTS

HIGH PROGRAM FIDELITY