Chantal Biya Joins a Farm-to-Table Launch

The First Lady participated in a healthy eating initiative excursion at the Stone Barns Centre organised by First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

September 24, 2010 in New York was a day for Mrs Chantal Biya to learn restorative farming techniques and the importance of fresh, healthy and sustainable food. The First Lady of Cameroon was down on the farm alongside over 15 First Ladies visiting the Stone Barns Centre for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, which is a non-profit farm and education centre about north of New York City. The First Spouses were responding to an excursion invitation from the United States First Lady, Michelle Obama. For over four hours, Michelle Obama used the occasion to showcase her healthy eating initiative as she welcomed spouses of world leaders to tour the farm and then treated them to a seasonal lunch featuring items such as “sungold” tomatoes, chicken with eggplant and ratatouille from the White House kitchen garden and eggs harvested minutes earlier from the farm’s chickens.

After boarding a bus from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal to the Stone Barns Centre, the spouses, who came from places as diverse as Cameroon, Mongolia, Swaziland and Latvia, toured the Stone Barns Centre with the assistances of the Executive Chef of Blue Hill restaurant, Dan Barber, talked with students from JFK Magnet School and Pocantico Hills Central School and ate a farm-to-table lunch.

The spouses were later introduced to the Center’s children’s education programme where local third graders from Pocantico Hill School and JFK Magnet School demonstrated their experiences in hands-on-farming, helped prepare the lunch for the First Ladies by harvesting vegetable and collecting eggs from pasture-raised hens. At the herb garden, Mrs. Obama told the kids, “We are counting on you for our lunch today!” The White House Kitchen garden inspired the day’s event which led to the development of Let’s Move! United States’ First Lady’s initiate to raise a healthier generation of kids. A key component of the initiative is school education. Stone Barns Center is an example of what can be done when local businesses, local farms, and neighborhood schools work together to educate children.

Addressing the spouses, Mrs. Obama, emphasized the importance of children learning directly about the food they eat. "Many kids may never learn that ketchup comes from a tomato and French fries from a potato," Mrs. Obama said. This is because they are disconnected from the food they eat. Mrs. Obama noted that childhood obesity is not just an American challenge. According to her, many of the First Ladies are seeing the same issues in their own countries and she believed they are working hard on nutrition and education. “My hope is that we can continue to partner and have conversations so that this local campaign becomes a national conversation in so many ways”, Michelle Obama told her peers. Mrs Chantal Biya and her peers from other countries left the farm only well fed and also presents. Mrs. Obama presented each with a Maplewood basket containing pickled, hand-picked goods from her Kitchen Garden; chamomile seeds, also from the garden, a clay tea canister, and a soy candle with a silver imprint of the White House on both sides.

Brenda YUFEH