SPRINGFIELD, Mo. —
Michelle Obama visited Springfield on Thursday to highlight the third anniversary of her “Let’s Move” program, touting potential business positives of an expanded healthy food section.
During a visit to a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, the first lady praised the company’s pledge to open or expand about 300 stores in communities with limited access to healthy food. She said businesses adapting on their own is what her program is all about.
“It’s not about government telling companies what to say or telling people what to buy,” she said. “It’s about businesses like Wal-Mart stepping up to give people the information they need to make healthy choices, then offering those choices at an affordable price.”
One of the information innovations she highlighted was Wal-Mart’s new Good For You label, which was designed to help consumers choose from a selection of 1,300 healthier products, including fresh fruits and vegetables. The first lady said consumers are more likely to buy healthy products when they are highlighted and made more accessible.
Joplin Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean was one of about 50 people invited to attend the event, which was mostly closed to the public. Colbert-Kean was among a group of regional leaders who met with the first lady before her remarks.
“It’s our kids’ health,” Colbert-Kean said. “If we’re not watching what they’re eating, then we’re going to have obesity problems on our hands. It is good to bring the information back to Joplin.”
She said learning about the initiative two years ago at a National League of Cities conference was what originally inspired the city’s own “LiveSmart” program, a coalition of education and health care entities encouraging Joplin’s youth to eat healthy and exercise. Colbert-Kean said she hopes the two programs can be combined in Joplin to encourage businesses — like Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market — to move to the community.
During a tour of the newly opened store, the first lady was joined by a group of Springfield parents and Wal-Mart executives where she noted Wal-Mart’s success in reducing the amount of sugars in dairy, sauces, and fruit drinks by 10 percent, and sodium in grain products, lunch meats, and salad dressings by 9 percent — well on their way to their goals by 2015.
“You all really took a risk in doing this,” she told Wal-Mart officials. “You didn’t just dip your toe into this.”
Schedule
THURSDAY’S STOP was the last on a three-day tour, which also took Michelle Obama to Clinton, Miss., and Chicago, Ill. On Monday, she will be the host for a Google+ Hangout session touting the program, and on Wednesday will take part in a Twitter town hall.
Local News
Michelle Obama highlights her ‘Let’s Move’ program
- Local News
-
-
Neosho Board of Education approves 10 percent raise in effort to keep custodians
School custodians are receiving the biggest percentage raise among salaries approved Monday by the Neosho Board of Education.
-
Jasper County to start enforcing newly-adopted nuisance ordinance
Jasper County has received 15 complaints based on a nuisance ordinance adopted earlier this year, members of the Jasper County Commission said Tuesday.
-
Woman admits role in prearranged funeral fraud
A St. Louis County woman has admitted to a role in a pre-arranged funeral scam that allegedly bilked customers out of as much as $600 million.
-
Carthage School Board OKs $45 million budget
A proposed budget that sets Carthage School District spending at $45.7 million for the fiscal year starting July 1 was approved by the Carthage School Board on Monday night. The budget represents an increase of almost 3.5 percent over spending in the current year’s budget. It also includes additional teaching positions and increases in staff pay, said Superintendent Blaine Henningson.
-
Missouri moves to lift ban on foreign farm owners
Weeks before a Chinese conglomerate agreed to buy Smithfield Foods Inc. in the largest such takeover of a U.S. business, Missouri lawmakers quietly approved legislation removing a ban on foreign ownership of agricultural land.
-
Missouri season to open for bullfrogs and green frogs
Missouri’s frogging season is about to begin.
-
Joplin City Council to move forward on $130 million recovery proposal; curbside recycling election resurrected
Residents kept the house packed to the end of a 2 1/2-hour meeting of the Joplin City Council on Monday night to encourage the panel to resurrect some kind of curbside recycling proposal and to hear the details or support a $130 million recovery plan.
-
Board chairwoman: Bruce Speck out as MSSU president
Bruce Speck is “no longer president” of Missouri Southern State University, the Board of Governors disclosed Monday. The announcement was made late Monday afternoon following a unanimous vote taken during a closed board meeting Friday.
-
Mike Pound: It’s OK to leave dad alone on Father’s Day
My wife was worried that I would mind being alone for a couple of hours on Sunday.
Sunday was Father’s Day, and my wife had the crazy notion that I wanted to be surrounded by kith and kin all day. -
New Mexico man draws prison term in Joplin child-rape case
A 59-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a developmentally disabled 8-year-old girl in Joplin. Robert L. Newton pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to first-degree statutory rape, first-degree statutory sodomy and felony failure to appear in court in a plea agreement with the prosecutor’s office.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Neosho Board of Education approves 10 percent raise in effort to keep custodians
