White House Kitchen Garden Tours Now Open To All School Groups

The White House announces a swell policy change; beekeeper Brandts joins the school tour lineup, too
Weekly tours of the Kitchen Garden for students are now open to all school groups, regardless of zip code, according to Semonti Stephens, Deputy Press Secretary for First Lady Michelle Obama. In October, the tour program was initially announced as only being available to DC-local groups, but in order to accommodate all the interest, the White House has expanded the program. The tours will be led by White House chefs, and beekeeper Charlie Brandts, overseer of the White House beehive, will also join future tours. (Above: The Kitchen Garden, literally one minute before it was divested of all veggies on Oct. 29, during the big Fall Harvest event)

Stephens says that as of the Fall Harvest on Oct. 29, three school groups had already toured the garden under the new program, with each tour led by Food Initiative Coordinator Sam Kass. Stephens noted that the White House chefs are all very interested in the garden, and looking forward to leading the tour groups. Since its planting in April, the Kitchen Garden has produced about 960 pounds of vegetables, which have been used at the White House and donated to local social services agency Miriam's Kitchen. The White House beehive has produced about 134 pounds of honey, which was used most recently to make the Spider White House cookies that were distributed to more than 2,000 trick-or-treaters who visited the White House on Halloween. (Above: Mrs. Obama holds a sweet potato at the Fall Harvest, which she'd just wrestled out of its bed)

The Kitchen Garden tours do not include an indoor tour of the residence, and applicants are encouraged to apply as long as possible in advance; for an application and more information click here. Note: On the White House site for the tour application, the form still says that the tours are only available for local students; ignore this--the form just hasn't been updated yet.

Related: Read about the Fall Harvest of the Kitchen Garden here; a history of the garden at six months is here. Photos by Obama Foodorama.