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Instead of Traffic, Fresh TomatoesFirst Lady Helps Celebrate Opening of Vermont Avenue Farmers Market
By Emma BrownWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, September 18, 2009
Michelle Obama continued her crusade for fresh food and local farmers under drizzly skies Thursday when she spoke before a cheering crowd at the opening of the District's newest farmers market, just blocks from the White House.
"I have to say, I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said, as several hundred foodies and first-lady fans raised their cellphones and cameras to capture the moment. "This is good!"
The market is the fifth in the city run by Freshfarm Markets, which had sought to put it closer to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue but was stymied by security concerns. Last week, with the support of neighborhood groups, the nonprofit group was granted permission to close off a block of Vermont Avenue between H and I streets NW from 1 to 8 p.m. Thursdays until Oct. 29.
"It's an exciting day," said Bernadine Prince, co-director of Freshfarm Markets. Obama is "making healthy eating a priority. What we need to do now is make it a national habit."
Tents belonging to 19 farmers from the Chesapeake Bay watershed lined the closed-off block. Obama urged the audience to take advantage of the offerings: wooden crates overflowing with yellow corn and gala apples, tables filled with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.
"I've learned that when my family eats fresh food, healthy food, that it really affects how we feel, how we get through the day," she said, "and that's whether we're trying to get through math homework or whether there's a Cabinet meeting or whether we're just walking the dog."
Then she heeded her own advice and -- wearing a lei of marigolds offered by a 5-year-old girl -- descended from the podium to shake hands and buy a basketful of Tuscan kale, eggs, cherry tomatoes, mixed hot peppers, pears, fingerling potatoes, cheese and chocolate milk.
Following suit, members of the crowd fanned out to farmers' stands, where they gawked at giant sweet potatoes, tasted tomatoes and asked how to use celeriac root in a soup. A Secret Service worker who had just finished his shift sampled every kind of goat cheese at one stand, then chose a brie to take home to his wife.
Employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Export-Import Bank, whose buildings flank the block, shrugged off concerns about closing Vermont Avenue during rush hour.
"There's not a lot of options for fresh food in the District," said Roz Howard, 37, a management analyst at Veterans Affairs. "You shut down for sporting events all the time. Why not for something that can really help people?"
Howard Schwartz, 56, an administrative law judge at the Department of Veterans Affairs, stood in the middle of Vermont Avenue taking the second-to-last bite of a nectarine. He'd watched the first lady extol the virtues of fresh food from the fifth floor of the Lafayette Building and decided to come down and partake.
"I used to pick and pack peaches near Niagara Falls," he said. "What I've been eating around here is plastic, but this here is wonderful stuff."
He couldn't park his motorcycle on Vermont Avenue on Thursday and had to the take the Metro but said it was a small price to pay: "I'll give up my motorcycle for a really good nectarine."
First lady speaks and shops at farmers market
By NATASHA T. METZLERThe Associated Press Thursday, September 17, 2009; 5:35 PM
WASHINGTON -- First lady Michelle Obama bought cheese, fingerling potatoes, eggs, black kale and other items Thursday at the launch of a new farmers market blocks from the White House. Before shopping, Mrs. Obama spoke about the importance of healthy eating to about 300 shoppers gathered in the drizzling rain.
"I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables," she told the cheering crowd.
The first lady said she wasn't always so invested in healthy foods.
"I was a working mother trying to put it all together," she said. "Takeout food was a primary part of our diet."
But Mrs. Obama explained that she gradually saw the effect eating better had on the health and habits of her children.
"The kind of food that we put into our body gives us the energy to get through the day," she said.
Mrs. Obama praised farmers markets as places where Americans can learn more about how their food is produced.
"You get to know the people who grow your food, how they do it, you know, who they are as people," she said.
These markets play an especially important in neighborhoods where access to healthy options are limited, she added.
The first lady has been promoting locally grown food and healthy eating with a popular vegetable garden at the White House.
September 17, 2009, 6:26 pm
At a New Farmer’s Market, First Lady Picks Up Eggs, Chocolate Milk and VegetablesNY Times
By Rachel L. Swarns
After giving her remarks at the farmer’s market, First Lady Michelle Obama grabbed a straw basket and did some shopping.
Undeterred by a steady drizzle and cheered on by hundreds of (hungry?) onlookers, First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the opening of a new farmers market near the White House on Thursday.
It was part of her ongoing effort to encourage Americans to eat healthier, fresher foods. So she urged the public to peruse the fresh fruit, vegetables, cheeses, locally-raised meats and baked goods being sold by local farmers on Vermont Avenue Northwest between H and I Streets.
“In this society today, sometimes it’s hard to make regular meals, healthy meals a part of everyone’s existence,’’ Mrs. Obama said. “This is one of the reasons why I’m so supportive of farmers’ markets.
“For those of us who are battling the time crunch and those for us whom access to fresh food is an issue in our neighborhoods, farmers’ markets are a really important, valuable resource that we have to support,’’ she said.
Mrs. Obama said that her experiences raising two daughters had inspired her to focus on the issue.
“Farmers’ markets are a really important, valuable resource that we have to support,’’ Mrs. Obama said.
“I’ve learned that when my family eats fresh food, healthy food, that it really affects how we feel, how we get through the day, and that’s whether we’re trying to get through math homework or whether there’s a Cabinet meeting or whether we’re just walking the dog,’’ Mrs. Obama said.
The market will be open on Thursdays from Sept. 17 through Oct. 29. Farmer’s market executives said that White House garden goodies will not be on sale.
But not to worry — Mrs. Obama made a point of giving the new venture her personal stamp of approval.
After giving her remarks, the first lady grabbed a straw basket and did some shopping, picking up some black kale, eggs, cherry tomatoes, mixed hot pepper, pears, fingerling potatoes, cheese and chocolate milk to bring back to the White House.
Maybe some kale on your dinner plate tonight, Mr. President?
“Yay for Vegetables!” -- First Lady Drops by New DC Farmers’ Market to Buy Produce, Promote Healthy Eating
September 17, 2009 5:58 PM
ABC News’ Karen Travers reports:
As part of her continuing efforts to promote healthy eating and living habits, First Lady Michelle Obama dropped by the grand opening of the FRESHFARM Farmers’ Market, just a block away from the White House
“I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables,” she said to a couple hundred people who gathered in the rain at the market. “Yay for vegetables!”
Earlier this year Mrs. Obama started a garden on the White House grounds as a way to educate kids across the nation about healthy eating. Today she said she the garden has grown beyond what she could have imagined – and is even a hot topic outside of Washington. “When I travel around the world, no matter where I've gone so far, the first thing world leaders, prime ministers, kings, queens ask me about is the White House garden. And then they ask about Bo,” the first lady said, referring to the First Family’s pet dog. “Everybody, it's the garden and Bo, or Bo and the garden, one or the other.”
Farmers’ markets and the White House garden play a key role in larger discussions about the nation’s health problems, Mrs. Obama said.
“They make us think about these issues in a way that maybe sometimes the policy conversations don't allow us to think.”
Tomorrow Mrs. Obama will jump into the health care policy conversation when she holds an event featuring women and their families who have had problems with their health care.
But at the farmers’ market Mrs. Obama spoke as a working mom who in the past found it hard to put together healthy meals.
“Takeout food was a primary part of our diet. It was quick. It was easy,” she said to knowing laughter. “We did what was easiest and what kids liked, because you didn't want to hear them whining…We're just trying to end the whining.”
Mrs. Obama said that farmers’ markets can be an “important, valuable resource” for families who want to eat well, have limited time and may not have access to fresh food.
The first lady said she wanted to make it clear that fresh produce is not just something for wealthy people, noting that farmer’s markets in Washington participate in several government programs that provide aid to low income families like the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). She said every WIC and SNAP dollar equals two dollars at a farmers’ market.
“So if you know people who have access to these benefits, they should understand that these farmers' markets are there for them as well,” she said. “And there is an incentive for them to use and buy their fruits and vegetables here. So we want to get that word out.”
After addressing the crowd of several hundred, the first lady did a little shopping, perusing the rows of vegetables and fruits that came mainly from local Virginia and Maryland farms and putting her items into a straw shopping bag.
What might end up on the family dinner table tonight at the White House? Mrs. Obama purchased black kale, eggs, cherry tomatoes, mixed hot peppers, fingerling potatoes, cheese and chocolate milk.
Someone in the crowd urged Mrs. Obama “Don’t forget the brussel sprouts!”
“I don’t know if the president likes brussel sprouts,” she replied.
President Obama spoke about the plans for a farmer’s market near the White House when he went to the DNC to talk about health care last month.
“One of the things that we're trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmer's market outside of the White House -- I'm not going to have all y'all just tromping around - but right outside the White House so that we can -- and that is a win-win situation,” the president said to laughter.
Obama said the farmer’s market would give Washington “more access to good, fresh food” and could be “an enormous potential revenue maker for local farmers in the area.”
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