Let's Move! Celerating 'Childcare'!

Week of June 16, 2011 First Lady Michelle Obama talks with children at the CentroNia Childcare Center in Washington, D.C., June 8, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton) THIS WEEK Happy Summer!

Ok, I know it’s not the 21st yet, but we are almost there. And the hot summer-like weather isn’t slowing us down – we’re always busy at Let’s Move! Last week we announced the Let’s Move! Childcare Checklist. It’s a tool for parents and providers to ensure that kids get a healthy start with good nutrition and physical activity. At the event with the First Lady, we announced that the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, Head Start and the nation’s second largest childcare provider, Bright Horizons, will live up to the goals of the checklist – impacting close to 300,000 children. Nemours and the National Association of Childcare Referral Agencies also developed a website with fun ideas and helpful hints to make it easier for parents and child care centers to participate.

And for the older kids, the USDA just announced the winners of the Chefs Move to Schools Recipes for Healthy Kids contest. Started last September, the First Lady and the USDA asked kids, nutrition experts and community members to create recipes for school lunches. The results were incredible and a team of experts has been traveling the country to test them. Check out the results and find the recipes here. Eating makes me think of gardens since we now know to fill half our plates with fruits and vegetables thanks to the new myplate.gov. The USDA has another great program called the People’s Garden that maps every community garden in the country. A recent event with Secretary Vilsack highlighted USDA’s garden and farmer’s market. Make sure your community garden is uploaded to the map by clicking here. And with all this food talk we need some exercise. This past Monday, we invited a group of kids from the area to participate in outdoor physical activity stations including rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, fishing and camping. I even tried the rock climbing! The event highlighted the anniversary of Let’s Move Outside and was designed for kids to try something different so they can be active all through the summer. What are you doing this summer with your kids? Keep moving and eating well,

Robin Schepper, Executive Director, Let’s Move!

---

Contact the White House

The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111

A Celebration of Women