Bill Yosses Headlines Kickoff Event For Third Annual DC Farm To School Week

The Executive Pastry Chef is the White House ambassador for Oct. 3 celebration of locally sourced school meals and farm-to-table education...
October is the first-ever National Farm to School Month, designated by a Resolution passed by the US House of Representatives in November of 2010. In Washington, DC, Oct. 3-7 is DC Farm to School Week, and Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses will join the kick-off celebration on Monday, acting as emcee for a Top Chef-style competition that will be held at 2:00 PM in the gymnasium shared by Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School and Savoy Elementary School in Southeast Washington. Yosses was on hand for last year's DC Farm to School Week celebration, when Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass served as emcee, wowing a crowd of about 200. (Above: Yosses in the Kitchen Garden)

The week of activities includes a focus on locally sourced school meals and farm education, and is sponsored by the D.C. Farm to School Network, now part of the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. At Monday's celebration, Yosses will provide the live commentary as four local chefs engage in a timed battle to create seasonal salads using a pantry of ingredients plucked from DC school gardens and provided by Whole Foods Markets. Student-led tours of the school vegetable garden will follow. This is the third year of events.

Chefs Move to Schools: White House chefs and Tubman Elementary School
Yosses, Kass, and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford all have plenty of experience bringing the farm-to-table experience to students: For First Lady Obama's Chefs Move to Schools initiative, the three Top Toques have adopted Harriet Tubman Elementary School in DC. They have cooked with the students at the school, as well as hosted them at the White House. (Above: The First Lady looks on as Yosses shows a jar of White House Honey to kids during a cooking demonstration on the South Lawn)

Among other activities, Tubman students helped the First Lady harvest her Kitchen Garden in Fall of 2010 and plant it for Spring 2011. They also served as junior guest chefs for the President and Mrs. Obama's 2011 Governors' Dinner, joining the White House chefs to help prepare the meal. Thousands of school kids have now visited the White House for chef-led tours of Mrs. Obama's garden and healthy cooking demonstrations--including at the annual Easter Egg Roll. The chefs have also traveled around the US spreading the Let's Move! message.

*Photos by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama