First lady espouses healthy food for kids

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POCANTICO HILLS, N.Y., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- First lady Michelle Obama joined spouses of 31 heads of state in New York to promote the cause of healthy eating for children, officials said.

While their husbands discussed world affairs at the United Nations Friday, the women toured the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, opened in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., in 2004 to connect people with the food they eat, The New York Times reported.

They watched as a group of children from nearby schools made lunch with ingredients they had gathered from the restaurant's garden and hen house on the 80-acre former cattle farm nestled within the Rockefeller family estate.

The first lady said it was important to teach children where the food they ate came from.

"The real beauty comes when you see the kids," she said. "They were focused on their tomato picking. And to see the kids in the chicken coops, picking the eggs, and they were excited, and they want to show you what they've done, and they have information and intelligence about the food that they're eating, you see that excitement.

"Many of these kids have never been on a farm, and but for this opportunity they'd never see where a tomato would come from," she said. "They don't know how chickens lay eggs. But they do now, because of this experience."