MA`O FARMS WELCOMES THE FIRST LADY First Lady Michelle Obama visits with MA`O Farms staff and interns, November 12, 2011.
“I am Michelle Obama and I am honored to be here. I’ve heard about all that’s going on here for years and years, so I jumped at the opportunity to come and not just see for myself but also to allow the world to see what you all are doing.” With those words, the First Lady of the United States introduced herself to members of the MA`O Organic Farms community last November. Mrs. Obama was accompanying the president in Hawai`i, his native state, for a meeting on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). She arrived at the farm with Ed Kenney, chef of the fashionable Town and Down- town restaurants in Honolulu. Chef Kenney uses MA`O’s organic produce in his cooking and sits on the farm’s board of directors. The next day he would prepare a meal for the spouses of the APEC leaders, using MA`O produce.
After touring the gardens with excited MA`O interns, Mrs. Obama sat down with them for a chat. She explained that her visit was connected with
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her efforts to spotlight and address the problem of childhood obesity through her Let’s Move! initiative. And she talked about experience she shared with the interns. “I planted a little garden in my backyard,” she told them to laughter and applause, referring to the White House vegetable plots she established to promote healthy eating.
“I just think the youth leadership piece is key to all this,” said the First Lady. “Because it’s really about continuing to pass on and on what you’re learning.” She compared the interns’ experiences in economi- cally challenged Wai‘anae with her own upbringing on the South Side of Chicago. “We had some similar issues,” she recalled, “. . . but for the few of us that did have some of the opportunities to get an educa- tion and go out and learn, we felt an obligation to reach back and bring other people along. “It’s a responsibility that you all have to embrace, to just keep reaching back. But I think you are all doing that. So just keep it up, keep it up.”