Remarks by the First Lady at Spring Kitchen Garden Harvest

Kitchen Garden

10:57 A.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA:  Hi, guys!  How are you all doing?  You came back!  What do you think of the garden?  

CHILD:  It’s awesome!

MRS. OBAMA:  It’s pretty awesome.  It’s changed a little bit since you guys planted, right?  

CHILDREN:  Yes.

MRS. OBAMA:  I told you it was going to be really different.  But it’s turned into something special.  Are you guys ready to do some harvesting?  

CHILDREN:  Yes.

MRS. OBAMA:  Well, let me make sure that everybody knows who’s here, because we have a lot of the kids who helped us plant this spring.  You were here -- mmm hmm.  (Laughter.)  I think almost all of you were here except for two people.  Who are our two new students that are here?  Hi, honey.  Welcome.  Is there another?  You, too?  Well, welcome!

Well, we have students here from Washburn.  Let’s hear it from our Washburn students!  (Applause.)  You guys are back.  We’ve got students from Kemper.  Where are our Kemper students?  (Applause.)  We’ve got our students from Arthur Ashe Charter School.  Yay!  (Applause.)  We have our Bancroft kids who are here.  Yay, to the Bancroft kids.  (Applause.)  And we’ve got our Harriet Tubman kids who are here!  Yay!  (Applause.)  

And we’re also going to get some help today from a few special guests.  We’ve got somebody here from Tastemade, and they do a lot of food blogging.  I think Chef Frankie is here, he’s going to help us.  Hey, Chef Frankie, what’s going on?  (Applause.)  And we have a very, very, very special guest who is a dear friend of mine.  She’s a member of the President’s Council, and she’s been helping us out on so many things.  She’s an advocate herself, she’s a chef, she’s a TV host, she’s a dog food sponsor.  (Laughter.)  She does a little bit of everything.  But she has been such a huge help around nutrition and eating healthy and cooking great things, and she’s here to help us harvest today -- Rachael Ray!  (Applause.)  Woo, Rachael!  (Applause.)  

So when we planted, we invited you guys because you -- all of you have really cool school gardens, right?  

CHILDREN:  Yeah!

MRS. OBAMA:  And we want to highlight the work that you all are doing in your schools and in communities.  And I’ve been doing some of that not just here at the White House, but I’ve gotten to travel around the country to visit some good school gardens and some really cool community gardens.  And we’re seeing that folks across the country are starting to do what we’re doing here at the White House, and it’s really helping a lot of kids eat better.  I visited some schools where they’ve changed their whole school menu, and it’s now healthy and fun and delicious, and the kids are into it, and they’re eating vegetables and fruits more than ever before.  So it’s just great to see that a lot of schools and communities are doing what we’re doing here.  So you guys are champions in that effort, right?  

So let’s get to work.  Because we’ve got a harvest, and then we’re going to cook, and then we’re going to eat.  I don’t know what’s wrong with this mic.  (Laughter.)  But we’ll just stop talking and get to work, okay?  Let’s get it done!  (Applause.) 

END 
11:00 A.M. EDT