The “First” Garden

Photo by: sgoralnick

Last year two activists started a campaign to have the First Family grow vegetables on The White House lawn.  Dubbed The White House Organic Farm Project, Daniel Simon and Casey Gustowarow went on tour to gather as many signatures as possible to persuade The White House to promote growing their own organic food.  To emphasize their message of sustainability the team purchased the bus shown above.  The bus (which is actually two welded together) comes equipped with a roof garden planted with organic chard, kale, collard greens, rosemary and basil.  The bus also has an on-board worm bin for the composting of food scraps.  Their tour took the crew to farmers’ markets, farms and schools to promote the importance of locally grown food.

The team’s hard efforts have paid off.  On Friday, The White House broke ground on the First Garden to be planted since Eleanor Roosevelt’s “Victory Garden”.  The symbolism of The White House Organic Garden is quite significant.  During World War II, Eleanor’s garden sparked a nationwide gardening movement.   But Michelle Obama’s comments – while local kids tilled the garden – might have said it best, “What I found with my kids (is that) if they are involved in planting and picking it, they are much more curious about giving it a try.”