Michelle Obama will visit Mississippi March 3 on her Let's Move healthy eating tour. She'll stop at Pecan Park Elementary and Brinkley Middle School. Today, she spoke at the School Nutrition Association's Legislative Action Conference in Washington. Transcript:
MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) Thanks so much, everyone. Please, sit. (Applause.) Thank you. It is such a pleasure to be here with all of you. Thanks so much for that warm welcome.
And I also want to thank Dora for that kind introduction and for your outstanding leadership of the School Nutrition Association.
And I want to thank all of you here today for the terrific work that you're doing every day all across this country.
And I know that you always don't get a lot of credit and recognition for what you do -- and you deserve it. You know, there are not a lot of newspaper headlines about how the meals you serve are the only food that many kids may get all day long. People on TV don't talk much about how kids who participate in the school meal program perform better in class and they miss fewer days of school. And a lot of folks still don't understand how the cafeteria is actually one of the most important classrooms in the entire school -- (applause) -- because what you all know is that our kids don't stop learning at lunchtime.
Every day, with the food you serve, you're teaching them these critical lessons about nutrition and healthy eating. You're shaping their habits and their preferences, and you're affecting the choices that they're going to make for the rest of their lives.
So now just multiply that by the 31 million kids in the school meal program, and it's clear that all of you don't just shape the future of individual students; you help to shape the future of this country.
And that's been the case since the National School Lunch Program was first started by President Truman after World War II, back when one of the most common disqualifiers for military service was malnourishment, if you can believe that.
And that's why President Johnson later in 1966 expanded the program to include school breakfasts and meals at preschools because, as he put it, he said that "good nutrition is essential to good learning."
So whether it's national security, education or child hunger, for decades we've looked to you for help in achieving our most urgent national priorities.
And that's really why I'm here today -– because once again today we're going to need your help with a crisis that we face in our own time: and that's the epidemic of childhood obesity in America today.
And you all know the statistics –- how nearly one in three kids in this country is overweight or obese. And you all see the impact on the kids that you work with. You see firsthand kids who are struggling to keep up with their classmates, or worse yet they're stuck on the sidelines because they can't participate. You see how kids are teased or bullied. You see kids who physically don't feel good, and they don't feel good about themselves. You see kids who are at higher risk of conditions like diabetes, and cancer, and heart disease -– conditions that cost billions of dollars a year to treat.
And by the way, today, one of the most common disqualifiers for military service is actually obesity.
Now, those of you who've been in this business a while, you know that this wasn't always the case. Things weren't always this way. I know you may remember a time when kids in your schools led lives that kept most of them at a healthy weight. They walked to and from school, they ran around during recess and gym class, and they played outside for hours after school. Many could -- kids ate home-cooked meals, and many had actually seen fruits and vegetables before you served them to them -- (laughter) -- so they didn't look at them like foreign objects when they got them at school. (Laughter.) Fast food, soda and candy were special treats; they weren't part of every meal. And at lunchtime, in many schools, kids just had two choices: either what you served them, or what their mom or dad packed at home, whether they liked it or not.
But over the past few decades, we've seen these healthy habits falling away, replaced by habits of convenience and necessity. You know, parents want to buy healthy food for their kids, but they're sometimes tight on money and can't afford it. Or they're tight on time because they're juggling extra jobs, extra shifts, and they just can't swing those home-cooked meals anymore. Those walks to school have been replaced with buses or car rides. And as you know, gym class and school sports have been cut in so many places, replaced by afternoons with the TV, video games, and the Internet.
And those two reasonably healthy choices at lunchtime, they've become dozens of choices –- some healthy and some not. That occurs as schools struggle to get the revenue that they need. From fast food, to vending machines packed with chips and candy, to a la carte lines, we tempt our kids with all kinds of unhealthy choices every day. And it's no surprise that they don't always pick the healthy ones.
And by now, I think it's clear that between the pressures of today's economy and the breakneck pace of modern life, the well-being of our kids has too often gotten lost in the shuffle.
But we have to be honest: Our kids didn't do this to themselves. You see, our kids don't decide what to serve -- or what is sold at lunch. Our kids don't decide whether there's time for recess and gym. They don't decide whether they'll learn about healthy eating or nutrition at school. They don't make these decisions.
We set those priorities. We make those decisions. And even if it doesn't always feel like it, we are the ones in charge. But that's the good news -- because if we make the decisions, then we can decide to solve this problem.
And that's precisely what many of you are already doing right now in schools all across this country.
Anji Baumann, the Child Nutrition Director for Gooding, Idaho, she has local farmers grow fresh fruits and vegetables specifically for her school district. And I hear her staff makes many foods from scratch –- including spaghetti and baked goods. In fact, they even came up with a recipe that uses pureed beans as a substitute for some of the oil in chocolate cake –- and it was so tasty that none of the students even noticed.
In Binghamton, New York, I hear they held a health fair to celebrate when six of the city's seven elementary schools reached Gold status in the Healthier US School Challenge. Wonderful. (Applause.) And they celebrated with kids proudly displaying the school -- their nutrition projects. And the whole community got involved -- the local hospital, Boys and Girls Clubs, the USDA office, and others -- they all sponsored booths with information on healthy living.
And in Jackson, Mississippi, thanks to the encouragement of the Executive Director of Food Services, Mary Hill, the superintendent now requires elementary school teachers to eat meals with their students. (Applause.) And as you can imagine, with teachers sitting at the table -– both encouraging kids to eat fruits and vegetables, and eating them themselves –- fruit and vegetable consumption has gone up there. Read the rest here.
