White House hosts 'Big Block of Cheese Day'

The White House is hosting its second annual Big Block of Cheese Day on Wednesday, an online-only affair inspired by former President Andrew Jackson.

Members of the Obama administration will take over social media to answer questions about Tuesday’s State of the Union address and other issues in America using the hashtag #AskTheWH.


Guests will include Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer, press secretary Josh Earnest, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and communications director Jen Palmieri, all of whom will be on the road with President Barack Obama. Other guests include Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez.

Representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department will not be taking part in the event.

And the cheese thing?

In 1837, near the end of his term, President Andrew Jackson invited guests to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to devour a 1,400-pound block of cheese. That’s right, cheese.

The original Big Block of Cheese, according to reports from the time, was the gift of New York dairy farmer Col. Thomas S. Meacham — in 1835. By 1837, Jackson had apparently decided he didn’t want the cheese sitting around much longer, so he made what remained of it the centerpiece of his final White House reception.

“For hours did a crowd of men, women, and boys hack at the cheese, many taking large hunks of it away with them,” 19th-century reporter Benjamin Perley Poore wrote in his memoir.

“When they commenced, the cheese weighed one thousand four hundred pounds, and only a small piece was saved for the President’s use. The air was redolent with cheese, the carpet was slippery with cheese, and nothing else was talked about at Washington that day,” Poore wrote.

Wednesday’s event ends at 6 p.m.

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Andrew Jackson