US First Lady Michelle Obama's White House kitchen garden and health initiatives (16Pictures)

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House in March 2009. The L-shaped 1,100-square-foot (100 m2) garden is located by the mansion's tennis courts and is managed by Michelle



Mrs. Obama, who had no prior experience in gardening, was motivated to start a garden when she realised her daughters, Malia and Sasha, were not receiving daily nutritious meals. Above, Michelle plants vegetables with White House chef Sam Kass (top) and local school children

The plot was designed to provide more than 55 varieties of fruit and vegetables that were to be incorporated into the meals made for the Obama family as well as invited guests

Another portion of the yields are to be donated to a local soup kitchen and the Food Bank Organisation

Michelle Obama helps assistant White House chef Kass shell sugar snap peas she harvested with local schoolchildren from the White House garden in Washington

Mrs Obama is confident that by educating the children of this generation then "they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities"

The First Lady has been a strong advocate of healthy eating and exercise and in February 2010 launched her "Let's Move!" initiative aimed at beating child obesity and improving the quality of food in US schools

Michelle Obama takes part in a few football drills with children and NFL coaches while promoting her Let's Move campaign to fight childhood obesity in New Orleans

Mrs Obama said: "We've gotten food out of the garden, and we can eat it and it's good"

Michelle Obama uses a skipping-rope while participating in the launch of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition with students and community leaders at Columbia Heights Educational Campus in Washington

In June 2010 Michelle Obama kicked off the Let's Move Outside! initiative that promotes outdoor physical activity for children and families at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas

Meanwhile, Michelle's husband sought to promote health care in March 2010 by signing an historic health care reform bill into law, declaring that it represented what "generations of Americans have fought for, and marched for, and hungered to see"

But it remains unclear whether the majority of Americans support the bill

Michelle Obama appeared on the cover of Children's Health magazine in m2009

In November 2010 Michelle Obama made a series of stops within the Kaiserslautern Military Community on Veterans Day to thank US servicemen and women for their work

Michelle Obama helps serve food at So Others Might Eat (SOME) during their lunch meal in Washington

source : http://refreshingnews9.blogspot.com/2011/03/us-first-lady-michelle-obamas-white.html