First lady touts Pa.'s health-food initiative
THE CROWD inside a packed auditorium at Fairhill Elementary School yesterday cheered the moment first lady Michelle Obama walked on stage, drowning out the names of the officials being introduced as they accompanied her.
THE CROWD inside a packed auditorium at Fairhill Elementary School yesterday cheered the moment first lady Michelle Obama walked on stage, drowning out the names of the officials being introduced as they accompanied her.
As notable as the others were - Gov. Rendell, Mayor Nutter, State Rep. Dwight Evans, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and more also attended - it was clear that it was Obama, dressed in a signature belted teal jacket and a dark skirt, who possessed the rock-star persona that excited this group.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," fifth-grader Samaris Rivera, 11, said while the crowd waited for Obama to arrive.
About 100 adults filled the front rows of the auditorium, with about 40 students in the back two rows. Many of the students said they were part of the school's Snack and Fresh Leadership program, which encourages children to eat healthy food.
Obama came to Philadelphia to spotlight a $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative that the Obama administration has proposed in the 2011 federal budget. Modeled after Pennsylvania's Fresh Food Financing Initiative, the program hopes to bring more fresh food and grocery stores to areas where people tend to have only convenience stores or gas stations to buy their food.
The program parallels a campaign Obama announced last week called "Let's Move!" which aims to reduce childhood obesity by encouraging children to exercise more and eat healthier foods.
"I'm a mother," Obama told the crowd at the school, at 6th and Somerset streets in North Philadelphia. "I care about my kids. I care about all kids. As adults, we all care about kids."
But more than exercise, Obama said, a key goal of "Let's Move!" is "to ensure that all children have access to healthy and affordable foods in their own communities."
"Let's move and give our kids what they need to be a success in life," she said, "so they can have the energy to study and be successful in school and in the careers they choose."
Obama said that schools may provide children with a healthy breakfast or lunch while they're at school but that it's hard to fight obesity "if all that's available at the local corner store is chips, candy and soda."
One in three children in the United States is overweight or obese, Obama has said, and a lack of healthy options contributes to higher incidences of heart disease and diabetes in poor neighborhoods.
She praised Pennsylvania for having begun its program back in 2004.
The Fresh Food Initiative is a public-private partnership that has spent $120 million to build 80 grocery stores statewide since 2004, said John Weidman, deputy director of the nonprofit Food Trust.
Earlier yesterday, Obama surprised people shopping at the new Fresh Grocer supermarket in the Progress Plaza Shopping Center, in North Philadelphia.
The $15 million market opened in December at Broad and Oxford streets and was built with help from the state's Fresh Food Initiative.
Obama praised Pennsylvania and Philadelphia for the work already under way here to bring healthier foods to all people in the state.
"Six years ago, this city had fewer supermarkets per person than anywhere in the country," Obama said.
"You could have decided that this was an unsolvable problem," Obama said. "You could have simply walked away from it."
But people in the state refused to look the other way, she said.
Obama gave a special nod to Rep. Evans, who has championed the Fresh Food program, by leading the crowd in applauding him.
