First Lady Michelle Obama shakes hands with employees after visiting the Agriculture Department to thank employees for their service and dedication on Friday. (USDA/Bob Nichols)
First Lady Michelle Obama visited the Agriculture Department Friday to thank Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and USDA employees for their service.

The visit was one of a series the first lady has been making to federal agencies since the beginning of President Barack Obama’s second term to thank employees.

It was her third visit to USDA. She thanked workers in 2009 and later launched the MyPlate initiative to encourage people to watch what they eat.

In his introductory remarks, Vilsack offered to put up the first lady’s portrait at USDA, but she declined the offer.
Michelle Obama
“I want to start by thanking Secretary Vilsack, not just for his kind introduction and the wonderful offer to have my picture here — which, we won’t do that — but for his outstanding service of the Department of Agriculture,” Obama said to the more than 500 people who got seats in the Jefferson Auditorium of the South Building. The first lady’s remarks were aired live on USDA’s closed-caption TV.

“Tom has been here from the very beginning of this administration,” Obama continued. “And let me just say from Day One, he has led with passion and vision and an unyielding commitment to the mission of this department.”

Obama also noted that she and her husband met Vilsack while they were campaigning in the Iowa caucuses.

“I just want to say, just as a personal note, that Tom — more than anything else — is a good man,” she said. “And he has been such a loyal, dependable and honest person. He and his family are terrific. He represents not just this agency, but this administration and this country. And we are just proud to have him on our team.”

Obama also said that her husband has noted that “when President Lincoln created the USDA back in the 1800s, he called it the ‘people’s department’ — the ‘people’s department.’ ”

“And I actually think that’s a pretty good description of what Secretary Vilsack and all of you at USDA have achieved over these past four years,” she continued. “I think that you all have truly made this department the people’s department. And that’s really why I’m here today. I'm here to just thank you, truly thank you for the terrific work that you do every single day on behalf of the American people.”

The first lady thanked USDA employees “for supporting our farmers and our ranchers and working tirelessly to market their products across the globe — which, by the way, helps to create jobs right here at home.”

She also thanked them “for protecting our environment, promoting renewable energy sources that will power our country for generations to come ... for lifting up rural communities ... for keeping our food safe.”

The kitchen garden at the White House, she said, “is beautiful now. It rained a couple days.”

The idea behind the garden, she pointed out “wasn’t just to encourage kids to eat more vegetables. I also wanted to teach them about where their food comes from.”

As she and the president have traveled around the country, she said, she has realized that some children “have never seen what a real tomato looks like off the vine. They don't know where a cucumber comes from. And that really affects the way they view food. So a garden helps them really get their hands dirty, literally, and understand the whole process of where their food comes from.”

The first lady added that she wanted children “to see just how challenging and rewarding it is to grow your own food, so that they would better understand what our farmers are doing every single day across this country and have an appreciation for that work, that tradition — that American tradition of growing our own food and feeding ourselves.”

She noted that the garden and her “Let’s Move” campaign have helped to spark a conversation about eating healthy, but she added that “all the conversation, all the movement around health” couldn’t have happened if USDA had not been there to launch the MyPlate icon and implement the changes to school meals under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

She added that she hopes school meals are delicious as well as nutritious — “and you all are playing a big role in that.”

Obama also said she realizes that budgets are tight and that USDA employees “are handling more responsibilities with even fewer resources than before.”

The first lady noted that she and her husband “get the limelight.”

“But the truth is we couldn’t do what we do without you sacrificing, you and your families,” she said. “So I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to them — all the kids whose plays have been missed, the birthdays that have been sacrificed, the spouses/partners that are upset. You tell them ‘thank you’ from the first lady.”

Finally, Obama said wanted to encourage the department’s lifetime employees to “just to retain that passion ... Stay engaged. Stay blessed. And just know that you have a president and first lady who truly value every single thing you do every day.”

After her 10-minute remarks, the first lady shook hands for about five minutes, according to a White House pool report.