UPDATE: The Announcement will be on Thursday, Jan. 20UPDATE, Jan. 10: Due to the shooting tragedy in Arizona, the First Lady's announcement has been postponed until further notice
As the one-year anniversary of the Let's Move! campaign approaches in February, First Lady Michelle Obama is kicking the national project into high gear. Next week, Mrs. Obama will be joined by business leaders for "a major announcement impacting food formulation, availability and affordability," according to the East Wing.
Making healthier foods both more easily accessible and more affordable is one of the pillars of the Let's Move! campaign.
"Here's the thing--we can build shiny new supermarkets on every block, but we need those supermarkets to actually provide healthy options at prices people can afford," Mrs. Obama told the members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association in 2010.
Mrs. Obama urged the food makers to trim excess sugar, fat, and salt from their products. In response, 16 food corporations pledged to eliminate 1 trillion calories from the food chain by 2012, and 1.5 trillion calories by 2015, by reformulating products.
Mrs. Obama's announcement in the morning on Tuesday, January 11 is simultaneously her first Let's Move! event and first public event for 2011. On Monday, Mrs. Obama will welcome Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, for a private luncheon at the White House.
Mrs. Obama's final public Let's Move! event in 2010 was the special bill signing ceremony on December 13, 2010, for the historic Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which passed during the lame duck session of Congress. Before that, on November 29, 2010, Mrs. Obama launched Let's Move Faith and Communities, a grassroots sub-initiative to encourage the vast memberships of congregations and community groups to join Let's Move! (Above: Mrs. Obama looks on as the President signs the child nutrition legislation)See also: Upcoming in 2011 Obama Food & Ag Initiatives
*Top photo by EGK/Obama Foodorama; second by HB/Obama Foodorama
