Outstanding Teacher Award presented to Garibaldi’s Chef Daniel Lesnes

The BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation has named Chef Daniel Lesnes as the recipient of its 2009 Outstanding Teacher Award. The Foundation is a registered non profit dedicated to “Working with educators to bring BC’s agriculture to our students.” This organization is responsible for delivering the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program to now 739 schools in the province as part of ActNow BC.

For the past nine years later Chef Lesnes has been the official chef for the Foundation’s summer Institute. He searches out local produce to serve and shares cooking techniques and recipes with the participants.
Still wanting to do more around teaching students the benefits of supporting local agriculture, Chef Lesnes - along with other members of the executive of the BC Culinary Arts Association – looked for a way to get local produce into secondary school teaching kitchens.

After two years of work a new pilot program will be launched with 13 secondary school teaching kitchens in the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver regions that will see BC produce featured from September to December 2009. Future chefs will work with 16 BC commodities. Turkey, beef, greenhouse vegetables, mushrooms, and more are all provided by the BC agricultural industry. “Take a Bite of BC” will start in four Maple Ridge schools this fall.

Chef Lesnes is also working with the neighbouring Blue Mountain elementary school to build numerous raised beds so that students and staff can learn how to grow their own food. Chef Lesnes has his own students working alongside elementary students to help make this huge project a success.

With all of this and all that he does each and every day to inspire his students to be the best chefs they can be, the Foundation decided to acknowledge Chef Lesnes with the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation’s Outstanding Teacher Award.