Million Pollinator Garden Challenge

The White House posted this advisory online yesterday:

First Lady Michelle Obama To Harvest The White House Kitchen Garden, Highlight Pollinators
Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Washington, DC * 3:30 PM – The First Lady will welcome students from across the country who participate in the ten Let’s Move! sub-initiative programs to harvest the White House Kitchen Garden. In 2009, Mrs. Obama planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn to initiate a national conversation around the health and wellbeing of our nation—a conversation that evolved into her Let’s Move! Initiative.

This garden harvest will highlight the important role of pollinators in the healthy food that we grow and consume. Last year, Mrs. Obama planted a pollinator garden next to the White House Kitchen Garden to support bees, monarch butterflies, and other pollinators as part of Administration efforts to promote pollinator health. Pollinators play a critical role in supporting agricultural production, and they are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we take. Because pollinators are facing disturbing signs of decline from a variety of causes, important efforts are underway to support pollinator health and habitat.

In addition to strategies and recommendations outlined by the Administration’s Pollinator Health Task Force, outside organizations have stepped up to support pollinators. This year, W. Atlee Burpee & Co. donated one million pollinator seed packets to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior to encourage people to plant pollinator gardens in communities across the country. Nearly 30,000 of these seed packets were distributed to families at this year’s Easter Egg Roll.

As well, the newly established National Pollinator Garden Network is launching on Wednesday the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, a nationwide call to action to preserve and create gardens and landscapes that help revive the health of pollinators. More information on this challenge will be available at Wednesday’s event.

To help her with the harvest, Mrs. Obama invited children from schools and locations that participate in the ten Let’s Move! programs, representing the millions of Americans that have been impacted by the Let’s Move! Initiative. Children from each of these programs also joined the First Lady at this year’s garden planting in April. These programs (full list here) were launched in collaboration with federal agencies, businesses, and non-profits to mobilize every sector to work in alignment with the overall goals of Let’s Move! and offer solutions, objectives, and technical assistance to help kids and families lead healthier lives.

The event will be livestreamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live.