What we’re building, and how we’ll know it’s working.

A movement dedicated to the health of our kids deserves us at our most effective. That’s why we’ll be measuring our impact from day one. This page will develop as our first families move through the program — and as we support their journey from curiosity to advocating in their own communities.

What we’re aiming for

Parents are recognized as a collective force for positive food system change. Parents have shown, time and time again, their power to make an impact. We’re applying that to the food system.

Parents are empowered to advocate for changes within their school districts and communities — and Brighter Table gives them the tools, support, and resources to create change.

Parents go from curious about plant-forward eating, to understanding and implementing the benefits for their families — and the ripple effect grows.

Year one goals

Here’s what we’re tracking in our first year. Each one tells us whether we’re making a real difference for families and schools.

  • Families completing a full three-month mentorship cycle

  • Families reporting a durable shift in weekly meals at follow-up

  • Parents taking concrete advocacy steps in their schools and districts

  • School districts engaging with us on healthier, plant-forward food

  • Resources published and freely available

A young girl with black hair and a white dress is sitting at a wooden table, smiling and pointing to her cheek. In front of her is a bowl of strawberries.

Every family entering the mentorship program completes a short baseline survey: what they’re eating now, what they’ve tried, and what’s getting in the way.

We ask the same questions again at the end of the three-month cycle. That gives us a picture of what changed for the families we worked with, and where the program helped least.

We track resource downloads and event attendance to understand which tools parents actually reach for, and we follow up with families who move into advocacy to document what happened in their schools and districts.

We’re careful about what these numbers can and can’t tell us. Surveying our own participants describes their experience; it doesn’t isolate our effect from everything else happening in a family’s life. As the program grows we’ll look for ways to test our assumptions more rigorously, and we’ll publish what we find either way.

A woman showing a young girl how to use a vintage rotary phone. The girl is holding the receiver, and both are smiling, wearing yellow shirts, in a warm, friendly setting.

Annual reports

We expect our first annual report will be published in early 2028.