Announcer ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a fifthgrade student at Capital City Public Charter School here in the district of columbia. [applause] brooke hello. I am excited to be here today. I would like to thank my school for giving me this opportunity, my parents for supporting me and coming to this event. When i was in fourth grade, i got to go to the white house garden and cook with first Lady Michelle obama. I was lucky to harvest Sweet Potatoes with miss obama, and i got the chance to harvest tomatoes and carrots that were included in our lunch followed the harvest. I enjoyed that experience. Now i spend more time in the kitchen cooking homemade recipes. I do it with a twist. I started doing healthy recipes like making my own salad. Michelle obama also inspired me to someday grow my own garden and use those plants to make my own recipes. My school is a lets move active school and a department of Education Green Ribbon School that also inspires me to go outside more and play. I am thankful for these experiences, as now i eat healthier. And being healthy makes me more active and engage with learning. Now i am excited to introduce two people to the stage who helped me make these experiences possible. Former executive director of lets move, mr. Sam kass, and former first Lady Michelle obama. [cheers and applause] mrs. Obama hey, everybody. Sam how is it going . How is everybody . Mrs. Obama wasnt brooke amazing . She was a little itty bitty person when she first showed up at the white house and now she is a young lady. Sam now those kids are going to college. Mrs. Obama i know. We did a reunion for the last garden dedication and we had some of the kids that planted the original garden and they were on their way to college. Man, sam, youre old. Sam its true. First off, how are you . How is it being free . [laughter] sam whats going on . Mrs. Obama im good. Im good. Just hanging out. Everything is really great. Being former is all right. Im good with it. [laughter] mrs. Obama everybodys good. The president s good. Hes running around out there in the world with his shirt unbuttoned. [laughter] sam thats the news thats going to come out of this. Mrs. Obama the girls are good. We settled into our new home and we have new offices, so weve been doing a lot of housekeeping. The schedule still seems pretty busy. I dont know why that is. I need to talk to my staff about that, but its good. Sam a little pressure off feels nice. Mrs. Obama a lot of pressure off feels great. Sam i will take that. Lets reflect a little bit. I find myself trying to make sense of what happened over the last 10 years, really, and obviously that happened bit by bit. But when the kids were really young, barack was starting to make some moves. You were the breadwinner, by the way. Mrs. Obama mmhmm. [laughter] sam how do you look back on yourself and the family and going about your business having no idea what was about to happen to you . How do you remember that time . Mrs. Obama i was back in chicago last week for the rollout of the new obama president ial center and got to stay at home for a few hours. In that kitchen where it all began because sam was helping us out at that time because i was doing a lot of traveling and holding down a fulltime job, the kids were little. I was campaigning as well as working. My husband wasnt around. I was in a position that many working families find themselves in where i was trying to keep my kids healthy and not doing that successfully. I had known sam since he was a teenager. And finding out that he was a chef and engaged in Healthy Cooking he had worked with families that turned their diets around. I ran into him and said, can you help us . Having you come into our lives at a very hectic moment and just helping us kind of clean out our way of being, getting rid of the sugary snacks and taking the kids to farmers markets. I remember as we were going through the cleaning out process and getting rid of processed foods. The kids were sadly looking out at the refrigerator as fun thing after fun thing was chucked into the garbage. One of the things malia said was, can i keep the boxed macaroni and cheese . Please dont throw that out. Sam she drew a line at the mac and cheese. Mrs. Obama you said the rule is that we can keep real food. If you can show me how to turn this block of cheese into this powdery substance, that is your boxed macaroni and cheese, then we can keep it. That poor little thing, because that was at the time that they were even too big to stand up at the stove without a step stool. He got her stepstool, little apron, a little knife and a block of cheese, and she sat there for a good hour trying to make that cheese into powder. Sam she put it in the oven and tried to dry it out. [laughter] sam it was a sweet. Mrs. Obama it was so sad. [laughter] sam she was like, you win, and slunk out of the kitchen. Mrs. Obama the point that you made was that we could still have mac and cheese. It has to be real cheese, real pasta, real food. Those early times, that was the beginning of the thought process of how do we begin to provide the kind of information that parents need about how to feed and keep their children healthy . Because i struggled with it until you came into the picture. I didnt even realize i was having a problem with it. Those early days were important and watching how the girls opened up to this new process. They were not the problems. The kids were not the problems, it was the parents. It was us changing our habits that we need to overcome. Sam they started driving it. At a certain point, they start putting their foot down and said no, mom. They started leading the way, and we have seen that time and time again. We saw that in the garden. Mrs. Obama we see it in kids like brooke, who have turned their houses around and lifestyles around because they have gotten the bug and theyve gotten the information. Those early days were precious, very precious. Sam so we took that after we would dream and chuckle at ourselves with our big visions and we thought, thats not going to happen, is it . We got in and the first thing that we did was we planted that garden. What was your expectation going in and what actually happened . What does that hold . Mrs. Obama it seemed like a simple concept, but when we really started to do it, when we found out first of all but the National Park services would let us dig up the white house sam which was a thing. Mrs. Obama we didnt know. It was just an idea. But when the answer was yes, the soil was good quality and everyone was excited about it. Then i remember when we first started digging everything out, i looked at sam and said, dude, this better work. What if nothing grows . [laughter] mrs. Obama weve launched this big thing. There was nothing certain about that idea. Him but it all started from that place of seeing this thing through the eyes of kids, so many kids dont know where their food comes from. They are living in cities and communities where they dont even see a vegetable. They dont have access to a grocery store, let alone to watch the process of something they put into the ground become life and something they can consume. It was a very simple but powerful concept. And to do it in the backyard of the most famous and important and iconic house in the country seemed like a powerful beginning. We always had the vision that this would be something that would engage kids, that they would help us plant, that they would come and harvest, that they would eat the food. They would get access to the peoples house. That they would come to see the white house as just another cool place that they get to go to all the time. The relationships we developed with two area schools that always came, they just became like, they were so confident in their access to the white house. They were like, yeah we been there. Kids would walk up and be like, wheres barack . [laughter] mrs. Obama im like, hes at work. They just felt really comfortable, but that was all part of it because we wanted other kids seeing kids having fun with food. And healthy food. When we would cook from the garden, that was the best thing. We would be out on the south lawn. The chefs would be in their hats, the National Parks people would be out there. In the stuff they planted would be washed right out there and they would cut it and prepare some of the best pizza and pasta. The kids would eat the food up, and it was like, you did it. You just got that food right there and its really good. As you can see, im still excited about the whole notion. Sam it was powerful. I remember the last harvest that i participated in, we made a kale salad. We sat down and a little boy you know, theres like 200 press and all eyes. And you are there and there was all this excitement. We sit down and a little boy leans over to me and says, ive never had salad before. But like scared. He has never tasted salad and this is a pretty big time to have your first salad. [laughter] mrs. Obama like it could go badly. Sam this could go really badly. There have been a few moments were actually i was all psyched about feeding the kids some raw vegetables and i realized, what am i doing . This could be a disaster. Mrs. Obama right in front of the press. When they scrape it off their tongues and they are gagging. You know kids. It couldve gone horribly bad. Him sam i remember the first lady saying this better not go wrong. Oh my god, i cant sleep at night. But this little boy, i said, dont worry. Just have a taste. If you dont like it, you dont have to eat it. He said, i will taste it. He takes one bite and screams, its delicious the tables around us were looking back. Its because you give a kid a chance to participate and take agency. He helped make that salad and he was begging for seconds. We saw that play out so many times. A really powerful time. As you look back on lets move, talk to me a little about your thinking around how we position the issue. Why focus on kids as opposed to the bigger thing . I think we wanted to position this in a way that was hard to go against. Mrs. Obama first of all, the numbers were real. This wasnt fake news. [laughter] mrs. Obama obesity rates are rising and continue to rise among our youngest. We are seeing kids have higher rates of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and these are real numbers. Asthma, all these things are preventable illnesses. We are living in a time when our him kids may have a shorter life span than us. The first time in sort of the history of mankind that we are in this position and theres reasons for it. If you think about it, its not complicated. Its nobodys fault. But diets have changed. Habits have changed. Peoples lives are busier. Parents are working. People dont cook as much. Theyre using more processed foods, foods in bags and things that are quick and things that you can microwave. People are going out more and its more fast food and they dont know whats in the food. Its kids meals that are so attractive, but the calories just add up. Everything is convenient, but nobody is thinking about, what does that convenience cost in terms of calories and sugar intake and on and on . Him and then on the activity him him him side, schools are eliminating gym and recess. Kids are more sedentary. The ipads, iphones, more whatever, tv and more time in front of screens. Unsafe neighborhoods that you dont even want your kids to be outside. Lack of access to produce in rural and urban poor communities. I could go on and on. Its no ones fault, but its true. Its real. You start with that truth that our kids are actually being affected by some of the choices we are making. The thing is that parents didnt even realize that their choices were having this kind of impact. Shoot, if i didnt know, a harvard trained blah blah blah, im supposed to know better. I didnt know. The whole point was, if i dont know, then what are other parents doing . Because the information isnt there. You cant read labels and you dont understand what youre getting. You dont know what the calorie count is on that nice kids meal that you just got. You just dont know. We start with the premise that first of all, everyone cares about kids. You know . Lets just stop there. Its our kids. This is not political. Everybody has got them. Republicans, democrats, independents. Every religion has kids. We all have kids. Every race, we all have kids. And kids are innocent. They come here innocent. They come here only doing what we tell them to do. They follow us. So lets start there because a maybe what people cannot do for themselves, they can do for their kids. I knew so many moms who were eating the wrong things for themselves and not working out. But if they knew their kids were being impacted, they would change everything. With a bad doctors visit, with a cautionary you are moving into diabetes territory for your children. That wakes parents up in ways they wont do for themselves. Starting with kids seemed like the only place to start. And then making it fun and not placing blame and try not to be nanny state, right . Try not to tell people youre doing it wrong and this is how you do it. Its really like, lets just try to make this fun. Lets plant a garden. Lets show kids what a vegetable is. Lets try to make it taste good. Lets try to work with businesses and help them help families. Sell your products. Make your money, but just do it in a way that does not kill our kids. How about that . We can Work Together on that. I will still buy your stuff, but help me understand that what i buy is going to help my kids grow up healthy. Work with us. Thats really the philosophy of lets move. And then lets move. Lets dance a little bit. Movement does not to be some horrific exercise where youre sweating and looking all pained. For kids, its movement. Its play. If we think about how much play has been cut out the lives of our kids, not because the parents want it, but because of budget cuts and decisions that have to be made, lets get our kids moving again. Lets get them doing the things they were born to do running, jumping, playing a game, walking the dog. This is not complicated. This is not hard. Childrens metabolisms are such that all it takes is better balanced meals, little more movement, and they are good. We are the ones, you get me at 53, shoot, i cant lose a pound. [laughter] mrs. Obama we do have it hard. Kids, it doesnt take that much to get them to a better state of health. Keeping it simple, fun, not too complicated, not placing blame, and Building Partnerships rather than pointing fingers was really all at the core of lets move. Sam you really always made us focus on you have to meet people where they are, go where they are, not just keep asking everybody to come to us, and speak in a language which people understand. Mrs. Obama that is why we said drink up, we didnt say stop drinking sodas. We said start drinking more water. We thought if you are having water, you will have room for them you wont have room for the other stuff. Sam thats what the evidence says. Mrs. Obama by the way. Sam thats what the research said. Its a message crafted to bring positivity, which is what sells. If you look at how people market products, they dont say dont drink their product. They say drink this product and be happy. Open happiness and be full of love. That emotional connection is how people make decisions. Part of the thing is really try to bring that insight into how we talk about health. We do it in a way that we know is going to work. The other thing you always stressed to us was we have to make this easier for people. Right now, we keep telling everybody you have to live healthier. Things are not going right, and all these dire statistics. We leave folks on their own to try to figure it out. Mrs. Obama thats why the School Lunch Program continues to be so important. Because heres the thing. We already know that there are millions of kids who get most of their calories at school. Theyre getting breakfast and lunch. Maybe you are good because you have a chef at home and you are cooking and you are sending these healthy brown bag lunches. Again, maybe youre good, but what about the millions of kids who are relying every day for every calorie, every healthy calorie for that school lunch . [applause] mrs. Obama lets think about them for just a minute. So even if you are one of those kids and one of those parents and because of your circumstance, you rely on those meals, even if you are trying to do the right thing at home, if you send them to school and everything you are doing is being undermined at breakfast and lunch, it makes it harder. As you say, lets make it easier for parents who are trying to do the right thing. And how about we not let kids completely guide everything, you know . How about we start there . How about we stop asking kids how they feel about their food . [applause] mrs. Obama because kids, my kids included, they could eat pizza and french fries every day with ice cream on top and a soda. They would think they were happy. Until they got sick, right . That, to me, is one of the most ridiculous things we talk about in this movement. The kids arent happy. You know what . Kids dont like math, either. [laughter] mrs. Obama we going to cut history out because kids dont like history . We are the adult in the room. They look to us. [applause] mrs. Obama lets stop with that. Im good if kids are mad at me. My kids are mad at me at home all the time, and im like, im not your friend. Im your mother. You dont have to like me, but im helping you be a better, healthier person. Lets lead like adults. The School Lunch Program is critical to help make things easier for families, not to undermine the work that they are doing. I went off there for a second. Im sorry. [laughter] sam thats why we are here. Mrs. Obama i digress. Sam school lunch is obviously a big part of the legacy of your work at the white house. What are some of the other things that stand out to you . What else are you proud of in your time with lets move . If you want to expand that to your time as first lady, feel free. Mrs. Obama im proud of the pha, first of all. [applause] mrs. Obama this group, the work i had a conversation with jim gavin recently, and the pha was probably the smartest thing that weve done out of the white house. Helping to build an outside Nonprofit Organization that depoliticizes this work and can work handinhand with the private sector in the Public Sector and build partnerships in a positive way, and the fact that the summit is the biggest and most successful it does make me proud. Having the pha means that this work moves it beyond politics. Yes, im involved and i will continue to be involved not because i was the first lady but because i care about this issue, and its not going away, but the reason why we will be able to continue to make progress is because of the people in this room and the people who have continued to push and to march and continue to make commitments, the corporations doing this outside of sometimes even their own business interests, but they are learning that it is within their business interests. Leading in that way, this is smart. This is how change happens. You cannot always count on the government. We would like to, but you can not always. Thats why we have always talked about it. Government cant solve this alone. Corporations have to come to the table, nonprofits, schools, educators. This is all our fight. The pha is leading in such an amazing way. This is another thing that i think im probably very proud of when it comes to lets move. Im also proud of the fact that there has been a culture shift. Shoot, i live in a bubble. I have lived in the bubble for eight years. I count on you to tell me whats going on out there, really, and i am trying to get back out there, but from what i can tell, things have changed in the last eight years. The products in our stores, even how things are placed. I can tell in the commercials and how people market food differently. Thats why the companies are responding because consumers, you all, the parents have started changing your behaviors. One of the things that we said at the outset is that if you change, the market will follow you. And that has happened in many ways. Not perfectly and not seamlessly, but im proud of the fact that people are reading more labels and they are more thoughtful about this. This is something top of mind that they are not taking for granted how they feed their families. People are thinking about movement. Thats huge. Thats where change really happens. I cant take credit for that. I think lets move is a potential catalyst, but a lot of that are regular folks, folks in this room and folks outside who are hearing these messages and they are making the necessary changes. I think that that is amazing. Sam im just going to have to him him say that you have been the single biggest force on Public Health that people who have been working on this for a long time ever had. Your leadership has had a transformative impact. [applause] sam so i respectfully disagree. I will also say that from the very beginning you made it clear to us as we thought about how to actually try to make the country healthier that this was never about you. It was always designed to transcend you, transcend the white house, and really take on a life of its own. We structured it like that and its been pretty powerful to see people taking up the call. Everywhere you go, there is somebody who started some class somewhere. They are doing some product of church and theyre doing walking clubs. Its remarkable. Its everywhere. Mrs. Obama its not just in the United States but internationally. When i was first lady, anytime i would meet a spouse of the leader of another country, it would be the first thing they would want to talk about. They would compare what they were doing, what the schools were doing in their countries versus what we were doing here. This is something in the United States that we can say we have been leading on for quite some time and we should continue to be a leader in this area. I think we will look back on this in generations to come and we will be grateful that we stopped this trend and we started now so that the kids born today are thinking about these issues completely differently. And you can change things in a generation. We got in this mess in a generation. If you think about it, i always talk about it. We didnt grow up this way. I know i didnt, and we were poor folks. But you always had a vegetable. I had a grandmother that would serve peas with hamburgers, which was like, no grandma. [laughter] mrs. Obama its hamburgers and french fries. Not hamburgers and peas. She would have peas in a salad. My mother grew up with victory gardens. Thats where they got their fresh produce. My father talked about the vegetable truck that would drive around the neighborhood. Vegetables were some of the cheapest, easiest foods to prepare grains and beans. We were eating healthy and people were moving and you didnt go out to dinner. My grandmother thought it was crazy to eat out. We grew up differently. This isnt inevitable. Its been created because the culture has changed and its hard to realize that when you are in the midst of it. Thats why its no ones fault. We are just sort of the victims of the way that things are. That means that we can also change it, that it doesnt have to be this way forever. We can implement new habits and new routines in our household. We can go back to the way things were with the added benefits of the technologies of today. We have a lot more work to do for sure. We have to make sure we dont let anybody take us back. The question is where we going back to . [applause] mrs. Obama what is it that people this is where you really have to look at motives. You have to stop and think, why dont you want our kids to have good food at school . What is wrong with you . [cheering and applause] mrs. Obama and why is that a partisan issue . Why would that be political . What is going on . Now thats up to moms. Moms, think about this. I dont care what state you live in. Take me out of the question. Like me, dont like me, but think about why someone is ok with your kids eating crap . Why would you celebrate that . Why would you sit idly and be ok with that . Because heres the secret. If somebody is doing that, they dont care about your kids. And we need to demand everyone to care deeply about our kids. Thats all we have. [applause] mrs. Obama so we should be we should be driving this. And every elected official on this planet should understand, dont play with our children. Dont do it. [applause] sam so we have already seen them try to ensure that theres tons of salt, less whole grains, ok . The core of our work is intact, but it just doesnt make any sense. Delay on menu labeling so we dont have basic information and make choices in restaurants. Mrs. Obama you should know what youre eating. Think about that. Stop there and think about that. You should know what youre eating. Youre ok with that . Do you know people who are ok with that . I just find myself thinking that this isnt my fight. This is where you have got to look yourselves in the eye. We have to look our neighbors in the eye and kind of go, what is going on . This just isnt that complicated. Just tell me whats in my food. Why is that a problem . You have to ask yourself whats going on . Because i dont get it. I dont understand it. Sam the question for us is there is now talk of delaying the nutritional fact panel, which is just another simple information so families can make better choices. Mrs. Obama keep families ignorant. Thats all im hearing. You dont need to know whats in your food. You can handle that, mom. Just buy this, be quiet, spend your money. Dont ask us about whats in your food. How does that feel . How does that feel . This isnt information you should know. We shouldnt change the label to make it clear and easy for you to break down what you are buying. Consumers out there, again, i dont care where youre from, what your party is, i would be highly insulted by that thought. You want to talk about nanny state and government intervention, well, you just buy the food and be quiet. You dont need to know was in it. Sam the question is do they hear from us . Do leadership know that people are listening and paying attention . Mrs. Obama they think you dont care. Because what they hear from are the people who want their kids to eat whatever they want to eat. Sam they hear from companies, too, who dont want to tell you how much sugar is in their products. Mrs. Obama why is that, companies . Companies . Why dont you want to tell people what they are eating . They will still probably buy it. Just help us out. Help us, companies. Help us be good parents. Help us do the right thing. Just help us, that is all. [applause] sam we have seen some incredible leadership by some, and it is time for some of those companies to step up and do what they know is right, make sure we continue to make progress and make sure we know who is fighting against it. Is going to be up to us to both vote politically, and to vote with our wallets, if we are going to preserve the progress that has been made. Mrs. Obama i want to support companies that want to help me as a mother. Mrs. Obama that is who i want to put my dollars behind. I dont want to tell you want to make, i just want to help me understand. What is this doing to my kid, what is this doing to me, my family, is it making us healthy . Just let us know. That is where we have the power. Him him you buy what you buy. They will follow your dollars. The question is where are you spending your money and are you paying attention . That is the other thing. A lot of this happens because fact labels . Who cares about that. This is where stuff happens when people dont pay attention. They think it does not matter, they dont want to get involved, it is too complicated. And before you know it, Childhood Obesity rates are through the roof. That is how we got here. We cannot keep wondering why. We got here because we were not paying attention. Again, not blame game, just reality. You take your eye off the ball on things and you let other people determine what you are eating, how you are moving, and before you know it, your kids have type 2 diabetes and you are confused and shocked and hurt. And i hope you have health care. Sam thats right. [applause] sam just to follow up a little bit on that sentiment, you know, everybody cares about food, as you say. Everyone is engaged in some way, about this. They care about their kids. People are passionate about what they eat one way or the other. Maybe they passionately like their cheeseburgers or want to be healthy, whatever it may be. For school nutrition, over 90 of parents support good standards in school food. But people are not voting on that, people dont seem to be politically engaged. Do you think that is a failing of advocates . What needs to change, and is that an important place to focus . Mrs. Obama people in the society are used to being marketed to. We take in a lot of stuff, but it has to be a good commercial, it has to have good music, it has to make me laugh. You you have people voting on candidates for an election based on whether or not they like the people or not. These things are not popularity contests, but this is how people take in do i know the person, are they famous . We just use different determiners to make our decisions and they are not necessarily connected. So we have to be better at messaging to people in ways that they hear it. Because to think that somebody is going to read some legislation that was published in some cr. You guys talk about this stuff and im like, what . I dont understand. If i dont understand it, the average person does not understand it. That is why marketing and conversation and messages are important, because people are not hearing this stuff now. Our side, we have to get smarter with how we disseminate information, how we keep people informed, because people are busy. Parents are consumed with life, so it is hard, out of all the things you have to think about, then follow the fact label, legislative process, that is not going to happen. In all truth, it is too much. So we have to get clever about how we get this information to people so that they, in real time, can make good decisions. How do you connect these issues to politics . What does the fact label have to do with the next election . I dont think the average person knows that. I think it is unrealistic to expect them to make those connections without some real strategy to make that happen. And who needs to be doing that . It is the politicians, we need to do a better job. Nonprofit organizations that are really thinking about their message. It is people with money, who have to put money behind messages that are good, as well as putting money behind messages that are just profitable. Because it takes money to get the message out. That is why you hear about soda more than carrots. They have more marketing dollars. Bottom line, they can have commercials on tv all the time. When was the last time you have seen a good, catchy carrot commercial with a jingle and a movie star . They cannot afford it, the carrot people. [laughter] mrs. Obama poor carrot people. Sam we are working on changing that. Mrs. Obama but Money Matters in messaging. There are folks out there with dollars. So how do we think creatively about this and put the resources behind it to make it happen . Sam two more questions. Mrs. Obama two more. One. Sam one . Mrs. Obama i was just saying this was one. I love to mess with sam. Sam ageold tradition. [laughter] sam there is this whole thing so, going into the white house, taking on these issues, we knew we were taking on a very complex set of issues here, a lot of entrenched interests, sensitivities, people dont like government messing with food. Lots of dynamics, right . We knew we were going to get some pushback, but we also got pushback from advocates. Were you surprised how that would play out . You would think, because we are fighting for the health of the little people, we would get rally support. Mrs. Obama initially it does surprise you. You know, we are sometimes, him what is it, we think we can have everything. In a complicated society with complicated issues, with all of this diversity and different perspectives and people with different upbringings, religious backgrounds, that is what makes america great, but that is also what makes everything harder. Look, if we were all alike, we would agree all the time. Will sometimes im surprised and sometimes im surprised that advocates dont understand a win is not winning everything. Not in this political climate. You have to celebrate every victory, even if it is not the whole thing. We wind up hurting ourselves because we are so critical because we did not get everything. Sometimes 30 is a victory. If we dont celebrate that 30 , then we have nobody celebrating the victory, right, because the opponents are like, it is all bad. Our folks are like, not everything. It just is not a smart strategy. I dont take it personally but i wonder, what is the thinking behind criticizing improvements . I know you want to keep the pedal to the metal, you want to keep pushing. You never want to settle. But we all have to learn how to celebrate these incremental victories. In this nation, the political system is structured so that change does not happen in sweeping movements. It does not work that way, there are too many checks and balances, and they are there for a reason. So we should not be surprised when we dont get everything. You know, when i talk myself through it, maybe people are not they dont know enough of the grey to know how grey things are. Nothing is black and white. It is hard to understand if you are on one side and you believe in it so, it is hard to want to compromise. As we teach our kids, life is a series of compromises. That does not mean that you lose, it just means you have to keep working harder. I think we have to be supportive of one another in our victories and defeats. I think we can do better in that. [indistinct yelling from audience] [applause] mrs. Obama i paid him. You will get your check after this, young man. Sam to build on that really briefly because i think it could not be more important the one thing we have that is priceless right now is so much momentum. Once you have momentum, everything is possible. Honestly, watching your husband and his trajectory have no momentum and then Gain Momentum and then see what happened from there, really taught me that. Every time we got a win, we experienced lots of big wins that turned into losses. It never stopped the momentum but it did slow it at times. As a community, we have to really understand that our job is to cherish that momentum and try to grow it, even if you get half now and half later. If you keep our momentum. That is something that is for our issues, but that is for all kinds of issues. Ok. It feels like you have been gone for a long time. [laughter] mrs. Obama no, it doesnt. Sam turns out it has only been a hundred and a few days. Mrs. Obama that is right. Sam i know you are probably still figuring some things out. Everybody wants to know, what is the plan . How are you thinking about the future . We are seeing a lot of progress, rates have started to come down for the first time. How are you thinking about your future on this . Mrs. Obama that is what we will spend the next year doing. We are not gone, we are just him breathing. [laughter] mrs. Obama just breathing, yall. Let us breathe. As i said at the outset, we have to get our new lives set up. That takes some effort, getting offices set up, establishing a new household and making sure our kids are good. I have one kid going to college. Another one just being 16. [laughter] mrs. Obama thank you. You know, so there is still parenting and life and all of that good stuff. As i mentioned, we have the president ial center, there are big hopes and dreams for that. We are excited about the potential that the center can have, not just on the south side of chicago but in the country and in the world. It will be a platform for the issues that barack and i care most about, including nutrition, health and all of that good stuff. But i am approaching the next chapter the way i approached this last chapter. I want to be strategic. I want to take time to get to understand what this new platform is. I am a former first lady. What does that mean . Where are the needs, where are the gaps . How do i make sure that im not redundant, that i do not supplant work that is there. That takes time to figure out. We did not launch lets move 100 days in. We took the time to understand, to learn, to meet the community of advocates to hopefully build is credibility, to learn something, so that we did not get out there and look stupid, quite frankly. That takes time. We will be doing the same thing. As we exit. But i want the folks here to know that my commitment to these issues are real. This didnt have anything to do with me being first lady. I picked this issue because there was deep passion for it, because of my position as a mother, not as first lady. When you hear me getting riled up in this chair, it is not politics, it is parenting that in is really moving me. [applause] mrs. Obama because let me tell you something. Our kids are so amazing, and that has been the biggest gift i had as first lady. I got to spend time traveling the country, traveling the world meeting kids like brooke, kids who planted with me, kids who we mentored, kids from all backgrounds, and they come to this stuff so pure. And we owe them so much. We owe them our best. [applause] mrs. Obama we owe them putting aside our politics. We owe it to them to not be cynical. We owe it to them not to give up. We owe it to them to be honest, to be true, to be empathetic, to be compassionate. Everything i do, i think about the kids that are watching me. And my commitments. Did i do what i said i was going to do . Because that matters to kids. That shapes them, and it can hurt them, when you disappoint them. So i operate from that place, because i love your kids as much as i love mine. I cannot help them in the same way, i cannot have the direct impact. I just wish we all operated from that place. If everyone on capitol hill down to every statehouse, every kitchen, every company, just operated from that place of what is best for our kids, what what would i want for my grandchild, what would i want for my daughter, my son, my neighbor . If we operated from that place, these issues would be so clear. It would be easier for us. So with that said, im going to continue to work on this issue. There is nothing more important than our kids health. We can give them all the money in the world, we can give them a great education, and we are not doing that as well as we should. We can expose them. But if we really want to make this country great, then our kids need to be healthy, and they need to have access to the best, and not just some of them, but all of them. All of them need the best that we can give them. [applause] mrs. Obama i think that pha, the work you are doing here, is just beginning to take off. We will spend the next year figuring out what that looks like. What are the next steps, how can i be of help . How can i be a good partner . That will take a little time but im here. Being here at this conference, this summit was important. I want you to know, again, it doesnt matter what house i live in, whether it is girls education, healthy eating, our military families, i mean what i say, and i say what i mean. You have got me as a partner as long as i can be of use. So the question for you is, where do you want me to stand, what do you want me to do . Let me know and i will be here. Sam thank you so much for all of your leadership. [applause] mrs. Obama thank you. Congratulations on a wonderful year. So proud of you all. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] and President Trump and Vice President pence will make at the National Peace officers Memorial Service set to start in a few minutes. You can watch live coverage on cspan two. , ae here at 12 30 threejudge panel of the ninth Circuit Court of appeals will hear oral argument on President Trumps revised travel ban. Theyre considering appeal from the hawaii district drug ban. Ruling on the travel the oral argument live at 12 30 here on cspan. House Speaker Paul Ryan is in georgias six district for an event with a republican karen handel, running for the seat held by former by Current Health and Human Services director tom price. Haddemocratic nominee has surprising success. Tonight on the communicators. A look at small town and Rural Broadband. Ms. Bloomfield talks about her organizations desire for a Rural Broadband expansion to be a greater priority in the trump administration. She is interviewed by david. What would you say to biggest priority in congress or the fcc . How do we make sure broadband is considered part of any infrastructure package. Theok at it and i think if with the highways of the future, it is about broadband. It brings jobs and commerce and Public Safety education and all the initiatives that keep our country robust can really be derived from broadband. How do you make sure policymakers have infrastructure beyond a road and a bridge. Watch the communicators at 8 00 eastern on cspan two. We need physicians and other Health Professionals who are technically competent, no are problem solvers, and were lifelong learners, gore team leaders, who are team leaders and consensus builders, more Business Managers and who can share our constructively and gracefully. I would just hope the you understand what this responsibility means. Out. Ans reaching it means caring about more than yourself. It means asking about we, rather than me. To have the fortitude to do the right thing, not the easy thing
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.