While the husbands were off discussing international affairs at the U.N., Michelle Obama and 31 other state wives headed up to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for a farm-fresh lunch with local schoolchildren. After the first ladies and the local third graders harvested vegetables and collected eggs, everyone sat down to a lunch of vegetables from Stone Barns and from the White House garden. The lunch dovetailed with Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity, and she applauded Blue Hill's work in getting people more connected to their food: "Many of the kids may never learn that ketchup comes from a tomato or that french fries actually come from a potato...When they grow it and they touch it and they taste it, they believe in it more than anything we could tell them."
Obama continued to emphasize the importance of knowing where food comes from. She told the Times, The real beauty comes when you see the kids. They were focused on their tomato picking. And to see the kids in the chicken coops, picking the eggs, and they were excited, and they want to show you what they’ve done, and they have information and intelligence about the food that they’re eating, you see that excitement."
Jill Isenbarger, the executive director of the Stone Barns Center said that having a figure like Michelle Obama making healthy eating a priority is more of an encouragement to children. "Having an admired figure like Michelle Obama here really makes kids recognize the importance of food. They do make the connection — why is this person paying attention to this issue, to getting kids outside to exercise, nutrition, eating right, and a whole package of issues that affect your long-term health, and the health of your community and the land around you." The rest of us will just have to be content to shop at the local farmer's markets, as there's no way in hell we're getting a reservation at Blue Hill.
