On February 9, 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let's Move! campaign "to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation."  The same day President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum creating the Task Force on Childhood Obesity.  The Memorandum set out four areas: (1) empowering parents and caregivers; (2) providing healthy food in schools; (3) improving access to healthy, affordable foods; and (4) increasing physical activity.  Coinciding with the launch, Michelle Obama did an intense round of media appearances, for example appearing on the cover of the March 22 issue of Newsweek.  The Task Force issued a 120-page report in May. 

Michelle Obama's leadership on this subject began in the early days of the Administration.  On March 20, 2009 she joined with students from Bancroft Elementary School to start the White House Kitchen Garden in a section of the South Lawn.  (search)

Let's Move! campaign has pursued a number of initiatives in its first year.  In June, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced "Let's Move! Healthy Cities and Towns;" by January 20, 2011 over 470 mayors had signed up.  Another initiative, "Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools," aims to "significantly increase salad bars in schools across the country until every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school."  Specifically, "The goal of the Initiative is to fund and award 6000 salad bars over the next three years."  Another goal is to eliminate "food deserts" completely in seven years.  [Food deserts are areas with limited food options, where people may not have access to a supermarket, and rely on convenience stores and fast food restaurants].  

On December 13, 2010 President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which not only reauthorized child nutrition programs for five years but added a new focus on improving nutrition and reducing childhood obesity.  (statements of support, including fact sheet and sample menu)

On June 2, 2011 the First Lady joined Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to unveil the MyPlate food icon, which replaces the food pyramid.  This is another outcome of the Child Obesity Task Force.  Obama stated, "This is a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we're eating and as a mom, I can already tell how much this is going to help parents across the country." (remarks)