First Lady Sees ‘Food Desert’ Solution

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by admin in Community Focus, Global News

By Eric Mayes

Special to the NNPA from the Philadelphia Tribune

Michelle Obama

First lady Michelle Obama, crusading against childhood obesity and “food deserts,” singled out North Philadelphia as a shining example of how communities can come together to bring healthy foods to urban areas while creating jobs and revitalizing ailing neighborhoods. “You all should be very proud to be highlighted here today for the work that you’ve done. It’s really groundbreaking,” she told a crowd of hundreds gathered at Fairhill Elementary School on last Friday, where she appeared to promote a new healthy eating and fitness initiative called “Let’s Move” aimed to reduce childhood obesity.

“You decided first that no family in this city should be spending a fortune on high-priced, low-quality foods because they have no other options. You decided that no child should be consigned to a life of poor health because of what neighborhood his or her family lives in. And you decided that you weren’t going to just talk about the problem or wring your hands about the problems, but you were going to act.” Obama, accompanied by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, made two stops: First at the new Fresh Grocer in Progress Plaza and then at the school. She was greeted like a superstar at both venues. Shoppers shouting “We love you” mobbed the grocery store, crowding impromptu barriers of pastries and other baked goods as Obama toured the store’s deli and produce section.
Their shouts drew the first lady away from the prepared tour as she took time out to shake hands, even reaching into the crowd to squeeze the hand of a little girl on her father’s shoulders. The crowd had been waiting inside the store for hours hoping to catch glimpse of Obama.
Storeowner Patrick Burns escorted Obama on the tour where she saw shelves filled with fresh fruit, vegetables and prepared food and even stopped to buy a strawberry-banana smoothie.
“I even have my own money,” she told the worker pulling out a $20 bill to pay for it and jokingly checking to make sure she got the correct change. The 46,000-square-foot Fresh Grocer located in one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, where an estimated 25 percent of families live in poverty, is part of Progress Plaza, said to be the first African-American-owned shopping center in the United States, having been developed in 1968.
The $15 million store opened last December. It was developed by, among other entities, the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a public-private partnership created to increase the number of supermarkets in underserved communities across the state.
The initiative, in partnership with the state, the Reinvestment Fund and the Food Trust — both nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia — will spend $190 million to build 83 grocery stores in 34 counties and created 5,000 jobs statewide, she said. “If you can do it here, we can do it around the country,” Obama said. “Our goal is ambitious. It’s to eliminate food deserts in America completely in seven years.” President Obama has announced that he will spend $400 million from the 2011 federal budget for a national Healthy Food Financing Initiative based on the Philadelphia model.

At the second stop, Obama spoke to an auditorium filled with hundreds of people, a mix of adults and children, where she promoted her “Let’s Move” initiative. Obama noted that one in three children in the United States are overweight or obese and that more children are showing up in pediatricians’ offices with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.
“‘Let’s Move’ is a nationwide campaign to rally this country around one single but ambitious goal, and that is to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that the kids born today grow up with a healthy weight,” she said. The program combines four steps: food and menu labeling, more nutritious food in schools, promoting physical activity and providing access to healthy foods to everyone. “So let’s move,” she said. “That’s really the point. If we know it can be done, let’s move; let’s get it done. Let’s give our kids everything they need and everything they deserve to be the best that they can be.”

Chicago Loses Olympic Bid to Rio, Residents React

Posted on 13. Oct, 2009 by admin in Community Focus, Global News

by Lesley R. Chinn

Four cities and only one got the Gold and it wasn’t Chicago. Rio de Janeiro won the bid over Chicago, which surprisingly got eliminated in the first round by the International Olympics Committee to compete for the 2016 Olympic Games. Tokyo was eliminated in the second round. Rio beat surprise finalist Madrid in the final voting round.

Rio played heavily on the fact that South America has never hosted the Olympic Games, while Europe, Asia, and North America have done so repeatedly. Now, only Africa and Antarctica are the only continents which have not hosted the Olympics.

The presence of President Barack Obama, first Lady Michelle Obama, and Mayor Richard M. Daley along with a long list of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey wasn’t enough to help win over members of the International Olympic Committee members.

Within the last few days, many IOC members were charmed by First Lady Obama, but when IOC president Jacques Rogge announced the results of the first vote, Chicago’s name was announced.

While many gathered at Daley Plaza to await the results, some Chatham residents watched the results from home. As an avid Olympics fan, Sandra Hearn hoped to see the Games in person if Chicago won its bid. “I’m just shocked that Chicago was eliminated so quickly in the first round of voting. I thought Chicago had an excellent chance of getting the Games particularly after presentations were made by the [President and First Lady Obama],” Hearn stated. “Having the Olympics would have meant so much for the city in terms of economics, jobs, and beautification of the city especially on the Southside, but now [Chicago] has to concentrate on being a world class city with a failed Olympic bid,” she said.

After a reported $70 million raised toward the Olympic Games, Sandra’s husband, Bob, said he doesn’t see any future bidding opportunities for Chicago. Recognizing the city has a lot to offer, Hearn said Chicago “now has to find out why they got eliminated so quickly in the first round.”

If Chicago had been chosen, the games would have been held from July 22 to August 7, 2016 with the Paralympics held between August 12 and August 28. The bid plan highlighted the use of venues such as Washington Park, Soldier Field, and McCormick Place to host the games. The city previously announced a $500 million insurance policy to cover cost overruns and revenue shortfall.

The 2016 Olympics is not the first time Chicago bid for the games. They bid for the Games in 1952, but lost to Helsinki, Finland. Chicago was scheduled to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the games were relocated to St. Louis to coincide with the St. Louis World’s Fair.

Michelle Obama Opens DNC With Hope

Posted on 27. Aug, 2008 by admin in Community Focus, Global News

Prepared remarks of Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, for her address to the Democratic National Convention on Monday night in Denver, as released by the Obama campaign:

As you might imagine, for Barack, running for President is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother Craig.

I can’t tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here
tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I’ve felt his presence in every gracefilled moment of my life.

At six-foot-six, I’ve often felt like Craig was looking down on me too…literally. But the truth is, both
when we were kids and today, he wasn’t looking down on me – he was watching over me.

And he’s been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when
- with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change – we joined my husband, Barack
Obama, on the improbable journey that’s brought us to this moment.

But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.

I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong
friend. I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.
I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world – they’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future – and all our children’s future – is my stake in this election.

And I come here as a daughter – raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue collar
city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother’s love has always
been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

My Dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties, he was
our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer
to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing – even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my Mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier, and worked a little harder.

He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the greatest gift a child can
receive: never doubting for a single minute that you’re loved, and cherished, and have a place in this
world. And thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsthand from their lives – and mine – that the American Dream endures.

And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he’d grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single
mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that
he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of
the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children – and all children in this nation – to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he’d
done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had
gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down, and jobs dried up. And he’d been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.

The people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that they couldn’t support their families after their jobs disappeared. Those folks weren’t asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work – they wanted to contribute. They believed – like you and I believe – that America should be a place where you can make it if
you try.

Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be.” And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is – even when it doesn’t reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves – to find
the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn’t that the great American
story?

It’s the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms – people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had – refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals. It is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when Dr. King lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation.

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history – knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I’ve met all across this country:

People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift – without disappointment, without regret – that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they’re working for.

The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and
women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it.

The young people across America serving our communities – teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.

People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters -
and sons – can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.

People like Joe Biden, who’s never forgotten where he came from, and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again.

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do – that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and
Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the
current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so
much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young
people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us – no matter what our age or background or walk of life – each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

It’s a belief Barack shares – a belief at the heart of his life’s work.

It’s what he did all those years ago, on the streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people
back to work and afterschool programs to keep kids safe – working block by block to help people lift up
their families.

It’s what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard working families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.

It’s what he’s done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this
country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care – including mental health care.

That’s why he’s running – to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college. That’s what Barack Obama will do as President of the United States of America.

He’ll achieve these goals the same way he always has – by bringing us together and reminding us how
much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn’t care where you’re from, or what
your background is, or what party – if any – you belong to. That’s not how he sees the world. He nows
that thread that connects us – our belief in America’s promise, our commitment to our children’s future
- is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree. It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.

It was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to the
man who’s unemployed, but can’t afford gas to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her sister’s health care, sleeping just a few hours a day.

And it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that’s been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.

Millions of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the change we need.

And in the end, after all that’s happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the
same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He’s the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail’s pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he’d struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father’s love.

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they’ll
have families of their own. And one day, they – and your sons and daughters – will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country – where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House – we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.

So tonight, in honor of my father’s memory and my daughters’ future – out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment – let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama President of the United States of America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

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Michelle Obama Speaks About Voting

Posted on 06. Aug, 2008 by admin in Community Focus, Global News

by Dwayne T. Ervin

Michelle Obama

Speaking to the press by conference phone, Michelle Obama stressed the significance of voter registration and the importance of getting involved in the democratic process to help change the future.

“My father introduced me to politics at the kitchen table and served as a precinct captain in our neighborhood. Some of my early child hood memories were watching him go door- to-door, getting people to register to vote. I remember sitting in my neighbors’ kitchens for hours.” she recalled.

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