Today, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the keynote address to more than 900 participants at the two day Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) “Building a Healthier Future” Summit.  The Summit brought together members of the public, private, and non profit sectors all working together to combat childhood obesity. Mrs. Obama noted new commitments from Dannon, Del Monte, Knowledge Universe, Kwik Trip, Nutri Ventures, and Sodexo and commended the incredible work being done to address the issue.

First Lady Michelle Obama, delivers remarks during a Partnership for a Healthier America event at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., March 14, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Highlights from the commitments announced today include:

Sodexo will implement healthy vending and dining programs as well as providing an additional 17 million free breakfasts in schools.

Knowledge Universe committed to serving over 160,000 children, will implement healthy childcare guidelines addressing issues such as physical activity, food and beverages, screen time, and parental participation.

Nutri Ventures nutritional animation committed to making its content available to schools at no cost for purposes of nutritional education.

Dannon committed to improving the nutrient density and reducing the sugar and fat in its yogurt products. In addition, Dannon will invest in education and research focused on healthy eating.

Del Monte Foods, INC committed to improving the nutrient density of all products in addition to providing funds to market healthy habits to children and families. Del Monte will also donate more fruit and vegetable products to anti-hunger efforts across the nation.

Kwik Trip convenience stores committed to distribute nutrient rich foods at an affordable cost as well as implementing an EATSmart program to promote healthy eating among consumers and employees. In addition, Kwik Trip will introduce a Healthy Concessions Program that only permits food and beverages that meet guidelines to be sold.

“I think we should all be very proud of what we are achieving together, because in a fight this hard, we should celebrate every small victory we can get,” said Mrs. Obama. 

Mrs. Obama also noted that although great progress has been made, we need to continue innovative efforts because we still have a long way to go if we want to solve this.  

The First Lady noted that through Let’s Move!, we plan to keep attacking this problem from every angle, because we know there is no one magic bullet.  So we plan to keep building healthier schools.  We plan to keep bringing fresh food into our communities.  We plan to keep urging businesses to provide healthy products and market them responsibly to our kids.  But we also need to keep innovating.”  As Let’s Move! continues to build and expand on the work in all of these areas, a new key focus over the next year will be around helping families to start cooking again. Research shows that home-cooking is one of the single most impactful ways for families to improve their health. 

“And cooking isn’t just good for our budgets or our physical health, it’s also good for our kids’ emotional health,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.

So stay tuned for more posts this year on fun ways to bring more cooking into your home!

To read the First Lady’s full remarks from the PHA Summit: http://www.letsmove.gov/the-press-office/2014/03/14/remarks-first-lady-partnership-healthier-america-s-building-healthier-fu