This Nonprofit Sends Dallas Kids Home With Fresh Produce — And Parents, Healthy Recipes

The nonprofit serves 15 North Texas schools, a handful in Austin and several dozen in Houston.

By Courtney CollinsMarch 20, 2017 9:30 am, , , ,

From KERA News

In Dallas, there’s a program designed to send kids home from school each week loaded up with fresh fruits and veggies.

Brighter Bites, the nonprofit behind students’ heaping bags of produce, also makes sure that parents know what to do with that food.

Stocking up on fresh food before break

It’s the Friday before Spring Break, and the school gym at John Quincy Adams Elementary southeast of downtown Dallas is loud and bustling.

Instead of stampeding kids chasing a basketball — 15 parents are making all this noise. They’re opening boxes, taking apart palettes, stuffing grocery bags full of fruits and veggies from the North Texas Food Bank and even hauling out trash.

They’re a well-oiled machine.

“And you do not want to interrupt those parents,” says Alica Farhat, who runs the Dallas office of Brighter Bites.

The nonprofit serves 15 North Texas schools, a handful in Austin and several dozen in Houston.

The volunteers here at Adams all have kids at the school and will all take home 26 pounds of fresh produce this afternoon before the weeklong spring vacation.

“And it’s something we hear a lot from our families, especially those on the Thursday or Friday distributions when the weekend is just around the corner, is how helpful it is for them for the week to come.”

Today, grocery bags are being filled with nine different fruits and veggies — everything from eggplant to celery and sweet potatoes to navel oranges.

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