Michelle Obama Kicking Off Anti-Obesity Drive With Oval Office Event - Politics Daily

Michelle Obama Kicking Off Anti-Obesity Drive With Oval Office Event - Politics Daily

First Lady Michelle Obama launches the Obama administration's anti-childhood obesity drive Tuesday with a media blitz, including White House events and cabinet members fanning out to deliver speeches and also taking legislation to Capitol Hill.

Mrs. Obama will for the first time enter the Oval Office on "official business" Tuesday morning when she sits with President Obama as he signs "a memorandum on childhood obesity" as part of the first lady's taking charge of the national campaign.

At noon, the drive she is overseeing--named "Let's Move"-- is unveiled with Tiki Barber, NBC correspondent and former NFL football player; Dr. Judith Palfrey, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Will Allen from Milwaukee, WI, who is a leader in the effort to bring fresh produce to inner cities and urban areas; Mayors Chip Johnson of Hernando, Mississippi, and Joseph Curtatone of Somerville, Massachusetts, who are leading efforts in their communities to reduce childhood obesity, and local students.

Six cabinet secretaries have also been tapped to attend, what the East Wing is calling "an unprecedented showing of Cabinet support at an event held by First Lady Michelle Obama."

Meanwhile, in excerpts from a speech Tom Vilsack was to have given Monday at the National Press Club -- but had to cancel due to after-effects of the weekend snowstorm in Washington -- the agriculture secretary mounts an argument that kids who don't eat right may develop learning and health problems that have an impact on other classmates.

"Ask any teacher how students who fail to eat a healthy breakfast or lunch perform in class," Vilsack said in excerpts obtained by Politics Daily. "Hungry kids don't learn as well. . . . If we want and need our children fully prepared for a competitive world we cannot afford for them to be hungry." Even classmates can be affected, he said, when undernourished kids fail to compete and challenge in classrooms and playgrounds.

Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, is also calling for school vending machines to sell healthy stuff instead of junk food with empty calories. "Cookies, cakes, pastries, and high-fat salty snacks are three times more likely to be sold outside the school cafeteria than fruits or vegetables.

"Foods served in vending machines and the a la carte line shouldn't undermine our efforts to enhance the health of the school environment. We must have the capacity to set standards for all the foods served and sold in schools. It doesn't mean the end of vending machines in schools -- but instead ensuring that they are filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation's children," Vilsack's prepared text said.

In an interview taped as part of the kick off, Mrs. Obama tells ABC's Robin Roberts, "There is no expert on the planet who says the government telling people what to do does any good." The first lady is not holding herself up as a purist: "I love burgers and fries and I love ice cream and cake," she said. The point, however, is to "balance that out" so people are not "facing life threatening illness."

Congress must reauthorize the school lunch program -- which includes nutrition guidelines -- and Vilsack, in his text, outlined eight elements the Obama White House is looking to include in the legislative package.

Here is his overview:

1. Improving access to the school nutrition programs must be a priority. States and local communities need be fully engaged as partners in our efforts to identify innovative strategies to ending child hunger. We cannot rest while so many of our young children struggle with access to food, which is why I'm calling on Congress to provide tools to increase participation, streamline applications, and eliminate gap periods. Another strategy for getting more children into the programs should be simplifying the application process through increased direct certification. If a child already qualifies for other assistance programs there is no reason why the parents of that child need to be bothered filling out one more application to qualify for school breakfast or lunch. Bonus payments should be offered to schools that effectively reach out to children who currently qualify but who are not participating

2. Increasing participation in School Breakfast must be part of reauthorization. On school days, almost two-thirds of children who participate in the lunch programs do not eat a school breakfast. And School Lunch is served in around 100,000 schools, while the breakfast program is only available in 88,000. We should be providing higher reimbursement rates for schools serving breakfast and combining that support with USDA-purchased foods to give more children the option of a healthy breakfast.

3. Helping to substantially improve the nutritional quality of the meals being served to our children is high on the list of 'must haves' in reauthorization. A recent Institute of Medicine Study commissioned by USDA sounded an alarm about the nutritional value of school meals. The study concluded that our children are eating too much sugar, salt, and fats and too few fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy products. This mix may help explain why one-half of the calories consumed by children ages 6-11 in this country are "empty" calories. We need to better align our meals with the Dietary Guidelines, leading to increased consumption of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low fat and fat free dairy products. USDA is working as aggressively as possible to implement the Institute of Medicine recommendations, but we also know that the improved foods will increase costs for local schools. That is why I am calling on Congress to offer support in the form of financial reimbursements and equipment as part of this reauthorization.

4. Recognizing that many schools do not have the equipment in place to improve food selections, the reauthorization should include funding to improve school kitchens so they can provide meals that meet the Dietary Guidelines and offer fresh fruits and vegetables. At the same time, we need to support school food service providers with resources for the critical training and credentialing they need to do their jobs.

5. The reauthorization effort should also ensure that all foods served in schools are healthy and nutritious. A 2006 study showed that cookies, cakes, pastries, and high fat salty snacks are three times more likely to be sold outside the school cafeteria than fruits or vegetables. Foods served in vending machines and the a la carte line shouldn't undermine our efforts enhance the health of the school environment. We must have the capacity to set standards for all the foods served and sold in schools. It doesn't mean the end of vending machines in schools – but instead ensuring that they are filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation's children.

6. Making sure that parents and students have correct and complete nutritional information about foods being served in schools must be part of the reauthorization effort. With better information and simple assessments parents can know what is available in their child's cafeteria and can assist their children in making the right nutritional choices.

7. Strengthening the link between local farmers and school cafeterias must remain a priority for this legislation. Supporting farm-to-school programs will increase the amount of produce available to cafeterias and help to support local farmers by establishing regular, institutional buyers.

8. Guaranteeing the integrity of the nutrition programs remains central to a credible reauthorization. Support for new technology will help schools avoid inaccuracies in eligibility requirements, and maintain the confidence that our help is only provided to those who need i