Michelle Obama's kitchen garden is the first to be planted at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt's World War II Victory Garden. The issue now is not about trying to make it with scarce resources, as it was then, but about having too much.
Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions, we are told, and the White House garden is an example of growing vegetables and fruits to eat more healthfully. It's also about sharing that story, which Michelle Obama has done in the past by opening the garden to journalists and school tours.
That story will be told in American Grown, which publisher Crown promises will include "ideas and resources for readers to get involved in the movement to create community, school, and urban gardens, support local farmer's markets, and make small lifestyle changes to achieve big health results."
Earlier this week, Michelle Obama returned to her hometown to implore mayors across the nation to follow the lead of Chicago, which has shrunk the size of its so-called food deserts, where families can't easily buy healthy foods.
"Think about all the neighborhoods that could be transformed, because people want to live in communities where they have resources," Obama said in Chicago after a summit hosted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on strategies to increase the availability of healthy, affordable food in underserved communities. "And a grocery store - a good-quality grocery store - is the first step."
The first lady joined Emanuel and eight other mayors, along with the chief executive officers of several food retailers. Emanuel announced that one of Chicago's major urban farm networks, Growing Power, had signed a memorandum of understanding with Walgreen Co. and Aldi to sell locally grown produce. The farms would offer job opportunities and economic development.
The mayor also said the city had commitments for 36 stores selling food to be added in the next couple of years, including 17 traditional stores such as SuperValu, Roundy's, Aldi, and Wal-Mart, and 19 expanded Walgreens drugstores.
The summit followed a report earlier this week that the number of Chicagoans living in areas without easy access to fresh foods had declined 39 percent in the last five years. The population in food deserts shrank to 383,954 from 632,974 in 2006, according to the report by the Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group.
This article contains information from Inquirer wire services and websites.
