While our President attempts to reform our shattered health care system, Michelle Obama has taken a slightly different approach. Our First Lady has made childhood obesity public enemy #1, and for good reason. Sedentary lifestyles, food choices that leave them little choice but to harm themselves, and a school lunch program that has been hijacked by corporate junk food and a lax USDA school lunch policy. It should be noted that our First Lady’s efforts have made government agencies as well as big food companies take notice of her campaign to get more people back in the garden and save our children from a 100% preventable sentence of obesity, illness and disease.
Just a few days ago, USDA agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack announced several new initiatives to assure the safety and quality of food purchased by USDA for the National School Lunch Program, stating, “Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our Nation’s school children”.  Glad to hear it. This announcement came just two months after a scathing USA Today article declaring that fast food standards for meat are far superior to those the USDA has for meat in your children’s school lunch. The USDA was sending chicken slated as compost or pet food to our school cafeterias! Alarming to say the least.
President Barack Obama signs a memorandum on childhood obesity in the Oval Office. From left are, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar February 9, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
One of Michelle Obama’s biggest supporters is her husband and President, Barack Obama. President Obama signed a memorandum February 9, 2010 that establishes a task force on childhood obesity to address this growing health epidemic. The new task force is charged with developing an inter-agency action plan to solve the problem of obesity among our Nation’s children. Within 90 days, the task force is to develop and submit to the President a comprehensive inter-agency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan. Members of the task force include: the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Agriculture; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Education; Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady; Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; and heads of other executive departments, agencies, or offices as the Chair may designate.
I’ll be sure to keep you updated on our First Lady’s work. We’ve been tickled from the beginning that she was carrying a torch for ‘growing your own’. This kind of campaign is exactly in line with our own efforts here at Surf City Growers and our new organic curriculum for preK-3rd graders. The direct link between growing wholesome food, education, exercise and nutrition for children in order to create lifelong habits of health for our nation is at stake. Some of us argue that it’s a national health crisis of proportions we cannot fathom.
Let’s join together to stop it in its tracks.
Visit Michelle Obama’s website at LETSMOVE.GOV
Tags: food, grow your own food, Let's Move, Michelle Obama, organic, sustainable, USDA, White House
