First lady Michelle Obama opened up a new front in the administration's health care campaign Tuesday - the kids.
Obama invited the fifth-graders from Washington's Bancroft Elementary School back to the White House - where they had planted a vegetable garden in April - to harvest the produce and to help White House chefs prepare a healthy meal with some of the results.
But before the 36 children, their teachers and the White House kitchen staff got to chow down on baked chicken, brown rice and salad at a picnic in the first lady's formal flower garden, Obama spoke about the role of poor eating habits in the nation's spiraling health care costs.
Obesity, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure are diet-related health problems that cost the country $120 billion a year, she said, adding that nearly half of Hispanic and African-American children will experience one of these health problems in their life.
"Too many kids are consuming high-calorie food with low nutritional value, and they're not getting enough exercise," she told the children, sitting at picnic tables covered in red-and-white gingham.
"My hope is that this garden, through it we can continue to make the connection between what we eat and how we feel and how healthy we are."
It was the perfect event to help President Barack Obama, who addressed doctors in Chicago on Monday, launch his plan for health care change.
But that might have been lost on the kids. They arrived wearing their signature yellow Bancroft Elementary T-shirts and, with the help of the first lady, harvested lettuce and snap peas.
"Does this look amazing?" she asked the fifth-graders, as they walked down the South Lawn slope to the garden, nestled in a grove of trees.
Some of the children washed the produce. Others weighed it.
Assistant White House chef Sam Kass said more than 90 pounds of produce has been harvested so far, some of it used in meals for the first family, but much of it donated to soup kitchens.
"Kale, collard greens and chard have been nonstop," said Kass. "The snap peas have gone crazy."
Next, a handful of children went with Obama and Kass to the White House kitchen, where they helped prepare the rice and chicken while the rest reported to the formal First Lady's Garden to make salad with the newly picked lettuce and decorate cupcakes with fresh fruit.
"This is the reward for all your hard work," said Obama.
But as the kids dug in, Kass issued one last healthy reminder: "Everyone has to eat salad if they want a cupcake."
