White House Garden “Bursting”
80 Pounds of Lettuce Harvested
The new veggie garden installed by First Lady Michelle Obama on the South Lawn of the White House is bearing fruit, literally and figuratively.
“It is blooming, it is bursting. We've already used about 80 pounds of lettuce. We've eaten it, we served it at a big fancy luncheon that I did for other congressional and senate spouses, and they just raved over it,” she said during a visit with kids who helped plant the garden. “We also shared some of the lettuce and some of the honey with Miriam's Kitchen,” she added, speaking at their Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, DC, and referring to the DC group that makes meals for the homeless. “The beans are starting to sprout up. We put the tomatoes in,” she said. Rhubarb and herbs have also been harvested, while they’re looking forward to berries.
Reciprocating by helping plant in their school garden, Obama praised the kids for “A-plus” work on presentations about the project. The garden shows how planting, harvesting and preparing one’s own food helps spread the message about healthy eating, she said. “It's an example of what we can do nationally with kids and nutrition, because we have to have these conversations about nutrition in a society where we're seeing growing rates of obesity and diabetes among kids.”
We must also work to distribute fresh, healthy food more widely and improve school lunches, she said. “We also know that access and affordability is also an important part of this conversation, which is why encouraging people to use farmer's markets, community gardens are really critical. But we have to figure out how to make this more affordable....And Bancroft School, this partnership has been right on track, because you've seen firsthand how possible it is to develop a community garden....One of the next steps in this conversation is figuring out how do we ensure, through the help of the government, as well as local communities, that the foods that our kids are getting in school each and every day is as healthy as it can be.”
For more on how Obama’s project is having ripple effects, including at the state level, see the summer issue of Edible Chesapeake. Click here for a transcript of the First Lady’s remarks: www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-First-Lady-during-Bancroft-Elementary-School-Visit-5-29-09/.
This article posted June 11, 2009.
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