HotmailMichelle Obama helps students with garden
First lady visits D.C. school of kids who planted White House’s crops
 | First lady Michelle Obama checks out the garden during her visit at Bancroft Elementary School on Friday, May 29, in Washington, D.C. |
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It was time for Michelle Obama to return the favor.
She put out the welcome mat at the White House and is opening its doors to all types of visitors, schoolchildren especially. She even turned to some fifth-graders for help when she decided to plant a "kitchen" garden on a patch of the South Lawn.
These students have had a school-based, organic garden for several years, and were excited to turn soil and plant crops with the first lady.
When visitors come and go from the White House, Mrs. Obama likes to respond by going to see them in "their space." So, on Friday, she climbed into her SUV and rode over to Bancroft Elementary School for a look.
She helped plant cucumber and red pepper seedlings in their garden, too.
Before slipping on the gardening gloves, Mrs. Obama listened as four students read from essays describing how much their relationship with her, their involvement with the White House garden and her message about eating more fresh fruits and vegetables means to them.
"It has inspired us to eat better, work harder and grow more vegetables," said fifth-grader David Martinez.
Involving the students in the White House garden was about more than just digging in the dirt, Mrs. Obama said.
"They've really learned some lessons about nutrition," she said, as the rest of their classmates and their parents listened from the sidelines. "They're making different choices because they're a part of the process of planting and tilling the soil and pulling up the food."
She held up the project an example of what can be done nationally with kids and nutrition, particularly at a time of rising obesity rates and illnesses in youngsters that have been attributed to being overweight.
Mrs. Obama said she didn't focus on the issue until her daughters' pediatrician suggested she make changes in their diet. As a busy parent, and then during the presidential campaign, she said she often resorted to feeding her family with take-out and processed foods.
"We started to see that taking a toll on our health," she said, adding that such simple changes as adding more fruits and vegetables to their plates and eliminating processed foods made the difference.
She also gave a status report on the White House garden, which was planted in March.
"It is blooming. It is bursting," Mrs. Obama told her helpers.
They've already used about 80 pounds of lettuce, some of which was served at a luncheon for congressional spouses. Some lettuces, and honey, were donated to a local soup kitchen. Beans are beginning to sprout, and tomatoes are expected soon.
The students are due back at the White House to harvest some of the other crops and "will see a totally different garden," Mrs. Obama told them. "Everything is blooming. We've even had to replant some more lettuce because we've used it up so quickly."
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