Brighter Bites celebrates community collaboration

Brighter Bites recently held its inaugural Monterey County Spring Luncheon in Monterey, Calif., for a larger conversation on creating communities of health through fresh food.

The nonprofit organization delivers fresh fruits, vegetables and nutrition education resources directly to families.

 The May 11 event highlighted the importance of and need for local and national collaboration to help Brighter Bites succeed in changing behavior among children and families through its model of fresh produce, nutrition education and a fun food experience, according to a news release.

Nearly 200 guests and community leaders attended the event, including Vic Smith of JV Smith and Cos., Bruce Taylor of Taylor Farms, Tiffany DiTullio of Blue Zones Project and Soren Bjorn of Driscoll’s, the release said.

The following local and industry partners sponsored the event and attended to join the conversation on food insecurity:

• Taylor Farms.
• Braga Fresh.
• The C Group.
•  Church Brothers.
• Driscoll’s.
•  D’Arrigo New York.
•  JV Smith and Cos.
• Drew Massa.
• Joshua and Inette Brown Family Foundation.
• Montage Health.
• Pacific International Marketing.
• Salinas Valley Health.
• Raymond Beshoff/Monterey Bay FC.
• Sysco.
• River Fresh Farms.
• The Wonderful Co.
• Windset Farms.
• Blue Zones Project.

“Thank you to the companies, organizations and individuals who are with us today, to ensure we receive the funding needed for long-term sustainability and growth,” Brighter Bites CEO Rich Dachman said in the release. “To those that donate produce weekly for our distribution — all of you are working together to create communities of health.”

“Blue Zones Project and Taylor Farms are focused on aligning and elevating the great work taking place in Monterey County because we and Brighter Bites are not the solution — we are three of the many incredibly invested, passionate, committed organizations serving Monterey County,”  Tiffany DiTullio, executive director of Blue Zones Project, said in the release.

The Monterey County Health Needs Assessment found that 40.8% of Monterey community residents were determined to be “food insecure” in 2022, having run out of food in the year prior, according to the release. The program has been providing nutrition education and fresh produce to underserved families in Monterey County since February 2021 and is now serving over 3,425 families across 15 schools and Head Start programs, the release said.

“Year over year, Monterey County programming has doubled in size and participation, with 10 schools on the Brighter Bites waiting list as of today,” Alicia Blanco, senior program director for Brighter Bites Salinas, said in the release. “We are proud of the fact that Brighter Bites Monterey County has the highest enrollment rate nationally at 94%. This means that out of all the schools and Head Starts enrolled in the Brighter Bites program, almost all of the children participate in Monterey County.”

“Over 400 families line up to receive their Brighter Bites boxes at our school,” Veronica Hernandez, principal for Arroyo Seco Academy, said in the release. “The families in our community sometimes have to make difficult decisions regarding what food they place on their table. Brighter Bites helps families to stretch their food dollars and allocate resources to other basic needs.”

Since its founding in 2012, Brighter Bites has distributed over 50 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables and nutrition education to more than 500,000 individuals across all communities it serves, including: Houston; Dallas; Austin, Texas; New York City, Washington, D.C.; Southwest Florida, Salinas, Calif.; Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Calif.; and San Antonio, the release said.

To learn more about Brighter Bites, visit brighterbites.org or follow the organization on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or YouTube.