An Invite to the White House Grounds

                                                         

I am psyched to announce that because of my works as an OFL Chef at City Harvest, I was asked to be a part of the launch of Chefs Move to Schools—a part Mrs. Obama's Let's Move campaign. The campaign's

mission is to stop childhood obesity by 2015. In this case chefs like myself will be placed in a school and work closely with parents, teachers, school nutrition professionals and others, to help educate children about food and nutrition. It is true this mission will be difficult—think Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution—but, the cause extremely powerful and necessary.

On June 4th fellow chefs and friends, Leslie, Melissa, Michelle and I were off to Washington, DC! First for a breakfast forum presented by Share Our Strength and then to the actual launch at the White House grounds! Hundreds of other chefs nationwide (all dressed in our whites!) had the honor of going to the White House lawn, touring the actual White House garden and being among fellow chefs and celebrity chefs alike all in hopes of making a difference in how our children are feed. Among those attending this "historic day of food", as described by White House Chef Sam Kass, were Anne Burrell, Marcus Samuelsson, Aaron McCargo, Daniel Boulud, Carla Hall, Tom Colicchio, Michael Laiskonis, Cat Cora, Lydia Bastianich, Art Smith and of course first lady Mrs. Michelle Obama. Overall the event was extremely inspirational and definitely served as a historic moment!

I look forward to seeing the next step in this project, as well as the successes and hardships that we will face in making this goal a reality. I will continue to keep track of my journey of Chef's Move to Schools as things progress! So stay posted. Even as I write this I have to pinch myself to see if this experience was all a dream…it was just that incredible! Btw, more pics available on Facebook!