First Lady Michelle Obama fights childhood obesity
Staff Writer
2010-10-26
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First Lady Michelle Obama brings her personal effort to fight childhood obesity to TV One Friday, Oct. 29 at 10 PM ET with the premiere of the TV One original special, Let's Move with First Lady Michelle Obama. In a candid and enlightening interview with TV One's Washington Watch host Roland Martin that takes place on the White House grounds and by her hand-planted vegetable garden, First Lady Michelle Obama discusses the components of her signature initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation and the issues and challenges involved. The First Lady tells Martin about the genesis of her awareness of the issue, which began with her own family's lifestyle, and advice and a cautionary word from her own children's pediatrician.
The First Lady stresses the importance of attacking the problem on multiple fronts -- at home, at school and in the community.
The program also features an interview with the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin. Additionally, Martin will take viewers to River Terrace Elementary School in Washington, DC, a school which the First Lady has visited and which is working hard to encourage student physical activity and healthy eating habits. Viewers will also meet Will Allen, an urban farmer in Milwaukee who teaches inner city residents to garden and grow healthy food in the city; visit a store that is helping to erase the "food desert" in Philadelphia, and learn about organizations that are engaged in the fight against childhood obesity.
"The truth is, is that the crisis that we're facing around childhood obesity hits everything," she says. It's about education, what our kids are learning about nutrition in the schools, the quality of the food in the schools. It's about our neighborhood development. How are neighborhoods designed? Are our kids -- do they have access to safe places to play? Are we structuring communities in a way that facilitate healthy living? Are there accessible and affordable healthy foods in our communities? And it's about economic opportunity as well because if folks can't afford to put food on the table, then they're eating what they can."