Kass: First lady remains committed to ‘Let’s Move’
November 13, 2013 | 06:23 PM
First Lady Michelle Obama will continue to highlight her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity and is looking into encouraging children to cook, Sam Kass, the assistant White House chef and executive director of “Let’s Move” said today.
When asked by The Hagstrom Report whether the first lady’s announced intention to encourage inner city students to attend college means that she will focus less on fighting obesity, Kass said of “Let’s Move,” “This is her life’s work. It’s not going away.”
Kass made the comment before speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum presented by The Atlantic, the Aspen Institute and the Newseum.
During the presentation he recounted the successes of “Let’s Move” and said “We are really starting to look into what does home ec of the future look like,” referring to the high school home economics classes historically offered to female students while male students took shop class.
Corby Kummer of The Atlantic, who interviewed Kass, said it might help to have a “a high-profile bachelor who is now engaged saying ‘I cook.’” (Kass recently became engaged to Alex Wagner of MSNBC.)
“Home ec of the future will have no gender differentiation,” Kass quickly. “Home ec will never be like the past.”
He also noted that cooking food is much cheaper than eating in restaurants and praised programs sponsored by Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger group, to teach low-income people how to shop and how to cook.
Kass, who cooks for the Obama family, said that children should be taught “simple, basic skills that can be translated into any culture, any style.”
He said he was encouraged by recent reports that fruit and vegetable consumption was up 6 percent last year and that there is now a “systematic decline” in obesity in the country, rather than just isolated success stories.
Kass noted that when the first lady recently convened a meeting of food industry leaders and nutritionists at the White House, Sesame Street announced that it would waive its licensing fees for two years so packers and retailers could brand fruits and vegetables with its Muppet characters. “Elmo will encourage children to choose broccoli over a brownie,” he said.
He also noted the first lady’s “Drink Up” initiative to encourage children to drink water and that the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act requires schools to provide drinking water.
Kass said he had been “floored” by the problems associated with that requirement such as infrastructure problems and drinking fountains that don’t work, but noted. “This is the law of the land.”
He was also pleased with reductions in sodium, he said, noting that the first lady worked with Wal-Mart to reduce sodium by 25 percent store-wide. But Kass also noted that sodium reductions have to be done carefully and that some companies have experienced a consumer backlash.
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to phase out the use of transfats will be good for people’s health, Kass said, but noted that the handling of the transfat issue is not a model for encouraging a reduction in sugar consumption and other foods because no amount of transfat is good.
“Everything else is much more complicated,” he said.
Kass declined to comment on what changes the administration would support,to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, but said he opposes the big cut that House Republicans passed as part of the farm bill.
“As a proud American I think it is unpatriotic and against every thing we stand for to balance the budget on the backs of people trying to put food on the table,” Kass said. “I feel very strongly and I know the president does, everyone in the administration, that is the not the right path to go down.”
When asked by The Hagstrom Report whether the first lady’s announced intention to encourage inner city students to attend college means that she will focus less on fighting obesity, Kass said of “Let’s Move,” “This is her life’s work. It’s not going away.”
Kass made the comment before speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum presented by The Atlantic, the Aspen Institute and the Newseum.
During the presentation he recounted the successes of “Let’s Move” and said “We are really starting to look into what does home ec of the future look like,” referring to the high school home economics classes historically offered to female students while male students took shop class.
Corby Kummer of The Atlantic, who interviewed Kass, said it might help to have a “a high-profile bachelor who is now engaged saying ‘I cook.’” (Kass recently became engaged to Alex Wagner of MSNBC.)
“Home ec of the future will have no gender differentiation,” Kass quickly. “Home ec will never be like the past.”
He also noted that cooking food is much cheaper than eating in restaurants and praised programs sponsored by Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger group, to teach low-income people how to shop and how to cook.
Kass, who cooks for the Obama family, said that children should be taught “simple, basic skills that can be translated into any culture, any style.”
He said he was encouraged by recent reports that fruit and vegetable consumption was up 6 percent last year and that there is now a “systematic decline” in obesity in the country, rather than just isolated success stories.
Kass noted that when the first lady recently convened a meeting of food industry leaders and nutritionists at the White House, Sesame Street announced that it would waive its licensing fees for two years so packers and retailers could brand fruits and vegetables with its Muppet characters. “Elmo will encourage children to choose broccoli over a brownie,” he said.
He also noted the first lady’s “Drink Up” initiative to encourage children to drink water and that the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act requires schools to provide drinking water.
Kass said he had been “floored” by the problems associated with that requirement such as infrastructure problems and drinking fountains that don’t work, but noted. “This is the law of the land.”
He was also pleased with reductions in sodium, he said, noting that the first lady worked with Wal-Mart to reduce sodium by 25 percent store-wide. But Kass also noted that sodium reductions have to be done carefully and that some companies have experienced a consumer backlash.
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to phase out the use of transfats will be good for people’s health, Kass said, but noted that the handling of the transfat issue is not a model for encouraging a reduction in sugar consumption and other foods because no amount of transfat is good.
“Everything else is much more complicated,” he said.
Kass declined to comment on what changes the administration would support,to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, but said he opposes the big cut that House Republicans passed as part of the farm bill.
“As a proud American I think it is unpatriotic and against every thing we stand for to balance the budget on the backs of people trying to put food on the table,” Kass said. “I feel very strongly and I know the president does, everyone in the administration, that is the not the right path to go down.”
