First Lady Michelle Obama talks to school children about the importance of exercise and nutrition at the Healthy Kids Fair on the South Lawn at the White House. MRS. OBAMA: Well, hello! CHILDREN: Hello! MRS. OBAMA: It’s good to see everybody. Perfect weather, right? CHILDREN: Yes! MRS. OBAMA: Thank you so much. I am thrilled to have you all here today at the White House. And I also want to thank a few people before we start, not just the young people here who also — some of you brought your parents, so let’s see the parents. Give the parents a round of applause. (Applause.) But in addition to all of you, we’ve got a few pretty special guests. We’ve got some talented chefs and nutritionists here to teach us how to make healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks. So I want to first want to introduce Koren Grieveson, who I just got to meet. Koren, where are you? There she is, over there. (Applause.) She’s from my hometown, Chicago. (Applause.) Yay for Chicago. And then we have Todd Gray. Todd, where are you? Raise your hand. Todd is from my new hometown right here in Washington, D.C. (Applause.) And then we’ve got Sam Kass who a lot of you probably met — (applause) — but Sam is in charge of the White House Garden, so he oversees all of that along with all of our wonderful White House chefs. Everybody from the White House team, raise your hands, all of our White House crew. (Applause.) And we also have Vahista Ussery and the rest of the staff from the School Nutrition Association who are on the frontlines every day in our schools. (Applause.) So Vahista, where are you and all of the nutrition experts? (Applause.) And Elie Krieger, one of the nutritionists from the Food Network, she’s way in the back with her family. Thank you, Elie. (Applause.) And I want to thank all the folks from the YMCA and Playworks. They helped us set up all the fun things that we’re going to have to do after we get through talking. So let’s give them a round of applause. (Applause.) (Inaudible) — U.S. Department of Agriculture for joining us today and for all of his hard work and leadership on making our food and our schools healthier. He’s been doing a phenomenal job. And it seems like just yesterday that Secretary Vilsack and I were out here to begin digging for the garden. And it seems like just yesterday. And one of our goals was to focus on the importance of educating our kids about healthy eating. So it wasn’t just about planting a garden. It was also to begin to talk about nutrition and to highlight the little ways that each of us can add more healthy fruits and vegetables to our diet, something that I think about all the time as a mother. We felt that this was especially important right now when so many children in this nation are facing health problems that are entirely preventable. So we’ve got our kids who are struggling with things that we have the power to control. Right now one in three children in this country are overweight or obese. And as I’ve said many times before, if we think we’re dealing with a serious health problem now, you know, then we project out to five, 10, 20 years from now when we see these rates increase and all the illnesses that result from obesity, whether it’s high blood pressure, or heart disease, cancer. And believe it or not, which is a very surprising thing, medical experts are now warning that for the first time in the history of this nation, we’re headed for the next generation being on track to have a shorter life span than us. That’s the way we’re going right now. And none of us wants that. None of us wants that for our children and for our children’s futures. Even if we don’t care about ourselves, we don’t want that for our kids. We want our children to eat right, not just because it’s the right thing to do but because quite frankly healthy good food tastes good and we want them to experience that. We don’t just want our kids to exercise because we tell them to. We want them to exercise because it’s fun and they enjoy it. And we want them to learn now how to lead good, healthy lifestyles so that they’re not struggling to figure out how to do that when they’re older. But as a parent, and I know all of you here today, we know that sometimes doing all that is easier said than done, because we all care but it is becoming so increasingly difficult to provide all that for our kids. And you all know that better than anyone here, as parents. We’re all pulled in a million different directions, working hard, working long hours, trying to do everything, be perfect parents. We love you guys so much we just want everything for you. But it’s hard to do everything. And when you come home from a long day at work, and the refrigerator is empty, and you know you don’t feel like cooking — (laughter) — the easiest and sometimes the cheapest thing to do is to get in a fast food drive-thru. We’ve all done it because we are overwhelmed and we don’t know what the options are. And today life is so different from w
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