Last Friday, First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed more than 500 chefs to the South Lawn of the White House for the official launch of the new Chefs Move to Schools initiative. Prior to their event at the White House, these chefs attended a best practices seminar where they heard from White House Chef and Food Policy Coordinator Sam Kass and a select panel of chefs who worked with the White House to develop the "Chefs Move to Schools" program. Each chef has committed to partnering with local schools to support the First Lady's efforts to improve school meals.

"Start with a salad bar," was the suggestion of Chef Jorge Collazo, executive chef for New York City SchoolFood and keynote speaker at this year's United Fresh convention in Las Vegas, and New York City chef and activist Bill Telepan. Collazo and Telepan explained that New York City has made salad bars an important part of its effort to increase children’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Collazo even mentioned the United’s Salad Bar in Every School campaign in his comments to the audience. Other chefs were also supportive of school salad bars, speaking about their positives experiences and how salad bars have benefitted their students.

"The National School Lunch Program is the single greatest tool we can use to change kids eating behavior," said Kass. "And we must develop ways to make the healthy choice, the easy choice."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who also spoke at the morning seminar, was adamant that the quality of school meals must be improved. He urged the chefs to galvanize their communities to challenge the status quo, saying the fix wouldn't be made from Washington alone, but "change must happen at the local level".

For more information about this event, contact Andrew Marshall, United Fresh policy and grassroots coordinator at or (202) 303-3407.