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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | ||
| White House to break ground on 'kitchen garden' | ||
| 2009-03-20 | ||
| The White House is getting a new garden. First lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to break ground Friday on a new garden near the fountain on the South Lawn that will supply the White House kitchen. She will be joined by students from Bancroft Elementary School in the District of Columbia. The children will stay involved with the project, including planting the fruits, vegetables and herbs in the coming weeks and harvesting the crops later in the year.
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| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #22 "if this kitchen garden really serves kids in DC, and isn't just a photo op" GFL with that one, mom. :-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-03-20 22:29 |
| #21 Now if school gardens got this kind of attention... The older three kids attended an elementary school with 51% of the kids on free/reduced lunch and a 47% student turnover at that time. Our townhouse complex took Section 8 housing, and we were next door to the school and its garden. When the school planted the garden, kids would sign up to help out over the summer. Of course, the kids went on vacation or had swimming lessons or whatever, and didn't come. I used to help in the garden, supervising kids; and the families from our tough little complex worked through the hot days. They found that all that work paid off when they brought grocery bags full of cucumbers home. That particular school garden closed when the teacher heading up the program went to another school; and the floods of 1993 prevented planting the garden the following year. I hear it's back; but I couldn't find the article. The best way to teach a kid the connection between hard work and food is to have them work in a garden. Inner city kids need this. So if this kitchen garden really serves kids in DC, and isn't just a photo op, it'll be of real value. |
| Posted by: mom 2009-03-20 22:17 |
| #20 and from the White House balcony.... "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,......." |
| Posted by: The One 2009-03-20 19:31 |
| #19 Gluting Fillmore6653 I see your point, too, but I trust the Media about as far as I can throw my thumb. I wouold be very surprised if the Students were not allowed to take some fruits of their labor home. I am willing to wait and see on this one. I do wish Obama's agenda fails, but I am not yet ready to critisies everything that his wife does. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2009-03-20 19:27 |
| #18 I didn't see that on the first read: the kids are providing food for the OBAMA'S??? Give me a break. They should go home with the food. But the Obama's love to be adored . . . they will "let" the little children of DC do their gardening. How about a city-wide neighborhood garden thing to teach neighborhoods how to grow food? Barak could use some of his "community organizing" skills for something better than tubing the world's economy. Okay, to be fair--ONE garden at the White House, as the example to the neighborhood gardens, which Michelle could make her pet project--nutrition, self-sufficiency, hard work . . . uh-oh, I think that's starting to sound too "conservative" for the Obamas. They're just trying to take attention away from the fact that they ditched all the DC programs of school choice, which has been really successful. They disgust me. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2009-03-20 18:52 |
| #17 Deacon, I understand your point. I don't have a problem with her promoting kitchen gardens. It's a noble goal. However, using school children to garden for the occupants of the White House is not representative of the American way. I supsect that if the Bushes had done this, hysteria would have been assured. no mo euro - you nailed it. |
| Posted by: Gluting Fillmore6653 2009-03-20 18:33 |
| #16 Great idea! That'll be real useful in a couple years when US currency is worthless. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-03-20 17:45 |
| #15 Just my 2c but some of yall might be a bit too hard here. Would you be saying these things if it was Laura Bush? I think this is a good learning opportunity for those students. I'm willing to cut her some slack on this one. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2009-03-20 17:01 |
| #14 Four legs good, two legs better. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2009-03-20 15:42 |
| #13 won't = will |
| Posted by: Gluting Fillmore6653 2009-03-20 15:18 |
| #12 lopt - you make a good point. Had Michelle chosen a public site and allowed the food to be taken home or given to shelters she would have done a valuable public service. But there is absolutely no way around the fact that the image of DC school children working the fields of the White House, to provide fresh vegetables for The Chosen Ones, won't conjure up an image of slavery. |
| Posted by: Gluting Fillmore6653 2009-03-20 15:14 |
| #11 You know, I'm not sure that's what matters here Darrell. Lots of Rantburgers b*tch, and rightly so, about welfare recipients who want handouts and don't take any initiative for themselves. An example of doing so, e.g. establishing and tending an urban garden, associated with a high-profile intact Black family might influence others to try it for themselves even if Michelle Obama's manicure never gets threatened. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-03-20 13:27 |
| #10 everyone can grow a garden and have free food Yeah, free food. You watch: free labor aside, they'll be buying and hauling in tools, a tool shed, top soil, peat moss, seeds, seedlings, fertilizer, etc. and they'll have the Secret Service guarding the plot from the birds and squirrels. There'll probably be a full-time USDA horticulturalist managing the watering. Michelle won't get her hands any dirtier that touching the pristine handle of her gold-plated ground-breaking shovel. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2009-03-20 13:17 |
| #9 To heck with the arugula, let's see the imagery of a field of cotton being picked by one demographic group under the oversight of another. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-03-20 12:24 |
| #8 I am a bit concerned by the imagery of (undoubtedly 'multi-cultural') children toiling at the executive Mansion, planting and harvesting the crops for free. But isn't that what communism really is all about? "Children" working in the fields to grow arugula the aristocracy. I have to give the Obama's credit for being open and honest about their intentions. That said, it will be a more accurate image when they conscript the children into some sort of America Corp to do the chore in exchange for free housing and meals. |
| Posted by: Gluting Fillmore6653 2009-03-20 11:32 |
| #7 I say hit them with FDA and USDA regs and make sure the whole thing is legit with the law. |
| Posted by: Anon4021 2009-03-20 10:31 |
| #6 ARUGULA!!!! GET YER NICE FRESH ARUGULA!!!! I can see the vendors at the fence now. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2009-03-20 09:48 |
| #5 Is this going to turn out to be one of those "lead by example, but take it way too far" type things? I feel like they are setting us up for food rationing or something. |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2009-03-20 09:44 |
| #4 I wonder how many rows of Beluga caviar she plans on planting? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-03-20 07:52 |
| #3 Oi vey. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-03-20 05:48 |
| #2 The Obama administration needs some place to spread all the manure they are producing. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-03-20 02:12 |
| #1 Outdoor Kitchen-BBQ??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-03-20 00:58 |