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Vilsack: Thank you very much.
Well boys and girls I have a number of
responsibilities today, but the first and most
important responsibility I have besides welcoming you,
is to thank the First Lady, for her championing this effort.
[applause]
We could not have a better spokesperson in the entire
country for this particular initiative then
the First Lady.
She has not only showed up to things like this,
but she has actually worked in the garden,
she helped focus our attention on the
importance of raising fruits and vegetables,
she has been a constant spokesperson about
physical activity and healthy eating,
and madam First Lady, I just want to thank you
from the bottom of my heart.
Because there are 30 million children who today
are going to have school lunches,
but tomorrow will have a better school lunch
because of your advocacy, so thank you for your efforts.
And I appreciate you sharing with us your
personal stories of your family.
It brought back memories in my family.
Boys and girls, I started out life in an orphanage.
And the first picture I have of myself as a child,
I have spinach all over my face.
It was a very round face.
But you know sometimes I have a problem,
between understanding the difference between
everyday foods and sometimes foods.
See I, I grew up thinking cookies,
and pies and cakes, and deserts were everyday foods.
And they're no, they're sometimes foods.
As the first lady indicated, they're treats.
The everyday foods are the fruits and vegetables that
are going to help you grow strong.
They are going to help you be able to do a better job
in school.
And that is what this country needs for you to do.
We need you to be the best students you can possibly be.
And in order for that to happen you have to be well
fed and you also have to be physically active.
So its part of my job and my responsibility to make
sure that we do a good job, a better job,
then we have done in the past at making sure that
the meals that you have available at school lunches
and school breakfasts are as nutritious as they can be.
And the First Lady mentioned the
Reauthorization Act; that's a law that
basically says its part of the nation's
responsibility to all of you to make healthy meals available.
And we are going to working with the First
Lady and the President, the Congress to try to
make sure that we have the resources necessary for
schools to be able to go out and purchase those fruits
and vegetables, and improve the quality of the meals.
Because unfortunately we are now getting studies
from a lot of different places that have suggested
that the meals that were providing and the diets of
young people today have far too much salt and far
too much sugar and far too much trans-fats, which
makes it very difficult for folks to stay healthy.
That is one of the reasons with we are currently
faced with the fact that we've seeing a growing
obesity epidemic among our children.
And I think it is incumbent upon all of this to do everything
we possibly can to give you a great start in life.
And that means making sure that you are, are well fed.
It also means acknowledging the schools,
as the First Lady indicated,
who take the extra step of not only providing
nutritious meals, but also making sure that you have
time in a busy school schedule, for physical activity.
We are partnering with a variety of other entities;
the NFL, National Football League is encouraging 60
minutes of physical activity,
and we support their effort.
And schools are a very important part of that.
And we want to make sure that we acknowledge
through our Healthier U.S.
School Challenge, those schools that go the extra mile to
give children the very best start they can possibly get.
And so we are going to be working hard,
because we know that the future of our children and
the future of our country depends on this.
This is no small matter.
Let me to tell you how important it is.
When I was asked by the President to take this
job, as Secretary of Agriculture,
I will never forget the first thing he said to me,
the first instruction I got from my boss,
it was very important.
I expected him to say something about farms and
ranches, and the farm bill,
I expected him to maybe talk about our
responsibilities overseas with food aid.
But he looked at me and he was very clear about this,
he said I want our children to be fed more nutritious meals.
That was the first instruction he gave me.
So it is important to the President and the First
Lady, that you are well fed.
And I just left the President's office and we
just signed the Agriculture Appropriations
Bill, which includes additional resources to
assist us in providing more fruits and
vegetables, additional resources to help with summer
feeding programs, so that youngsters get nutritious meals.
So let me finish where I began,
by thanking the First Lady.
We are going to put her in charge of weather;
she seems to have a good hand with that.
She has just been a tremendous advocate for
this and I look forward to working under her
leadership and direction, on making sure that we
fulfill a promise that we make to you,
to the children of America today.
We are going to work as hard as we possibly can to
make sure that you have the great start you deserve.
Thank you all.