Deb Eschmeyer
The White House today announced that FoodCorps co-founder Debra Eschmeyer will be the executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative and senior policy adviser for nutrition policy.

Eschmeyer will succeed Sam Kass, who departed in December to live full time in New York City with his wife, Alex Wagner, the host of the MSNBC program NOW.

“For more than a decade, Deb has been leading the way in teaching kids about the importance of healthy eating,” the first lady said in a statement put out by her office. “From classrooms and gardens to kitchens and farms, Deb has made learning about nutrition fun and accessible for kids across the country. I am thrilled that she will be continuing this important work here at the White House, and I know she will be an invaluable addition to our team.”

“As executive director of Let’s Move, Eschmeyer will lead the first lady’s work to help America raise a healthier generation of kids and ensure that all kids have the opportunity for the long, healthy lives they deserve,” the White House said in a news release.

“As senior policy adviser for nutrition policy, she will also advise on food and nutrition issues beyond Let’s Move.”

The White House distributed the following biographical information:

“Eschmeyer co-founded FoodCorps, a national AmeriCorps service program that places emerging leaders into schools in limited-resource communities for a year of public service.

“Throughout the year, FoodCorps service members teach hands-on lessons about food and nutrition; build and tend school gardens, teach cooking lessons; and help change what’s on school lunch trays, giving kids healthy food.

“In her role as vice president of external affairs, Eschmeyer helped build FoodCorps into a 182-member corps serving in 16 states and D.C. that supports the National School Lunch Program’s healthier guidelines, ensuring kids eat the healthy school food on their trays, and lays the essential groundwork for children to build lasting relationships with healthy food.”

The White House also noted that Fortune and Food & Wine recently selected Eschmeyer as one its “Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink.”

Eschmeyer also is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award and the Xavier University Magis Award in recognition of her exemplary school food reform efforts and commitment to public service, the White House said.

Before FoodCorps, she served as a W.K. Kellogg food and community fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minnesota-based group, and also as communications and outreach director of the National Farm to School Network, where she created One Tray, a national campaign to improve federal child nutrition programs.

She has also been project director at the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington, D.C., and served as an editor for “Food Justice,” as a contributor to the documentary Lunch Line, and as the author of several Farm to School publications.

Eschmeyer received a bachelor of science in marketing from Xavier University and a bachelor of arts in international trade and business and intercultural communications from Maastricht University in The Netherlands.

Eschmeyer has also served on the AGree Advisory Council and the Culinary Institute of America Sustainable Business Leadership Council.

“Growing up on a dairy farm in rural Ohio, Eschmeyer was ingrained at an early age with an appreciation for how nutrition policy meets the plow,” the White House noted. “ In conjunction with her policy work, she started a fruit and vegetable farm in New Knoxville, Ohio, with her husband.”

▪ Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Food and Community Fellows — Deb Eschmeyer