White House garden

Melania Trump joined schoolchildren to harvest and replant the White House kitchen garden on Friday, extending a project that Michelle Obama began and which became a symbol of her effort to revamp childhood nutrition and fight obesity. “I’m a big believer in healthy eating because it …

First Lady Melania Trump announced recently that she will maintain the kitchen garden that was a hallmark of Michelle Obama. The New York Times says chefs and others interested in food "are still waiting for more definitive signs of how the Trumps will feed themselves and their guests, and whether they will set — as previous administrations have — a culinary example for the nation."

First Lady Melania Trump, who toured Japanese-inspired gardens in Florida with the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, intends to keep the kitchen garden planted by Michelle Obama in 2009. An adviser told CNN, "As a mother and as the First Lady of this country, Mrs. Trump is committed to the preservation and continuation of the White House Gardens, specifically the First Lady's Kitchen Garden and the Rose Garden."

First Lady Michelle Obama "planted a garden, waged snappy social media campaigns, and worked behind the scenes with researchers, lawmakers, heads of government departments, schools, and food giants to quietly change what Americans eat," says Vox. Former critics regard her advocacy as "brilliant" and a "godsend," writes Julia Belluz in the story, which coincides with the final harvest by the Obama administration of the kitchen garden on the South Lawn of the White House.

An art teacher invited to the groundbreaking for the White House kitchen garden in March 2009 was inspired to co-found a nonprofit, DC Greens, that is involved in many of Washington's healthful-food-access programs, says the Washington Post. Sarah Holway, the teacher, and a friend, Lauren Biel, started DC Greens in 2009 and now have 12 full-time employees.