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KAKATA, Liberia (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama landed in Africa on Monday with her daughters and her mother for an overseas trip promoting education for girls, starting with a country still recovering from the recent Ebola epidemic that left thousands dead. The Obamas were welcomed in Liberia's capital with a red carpet and traditional dancers wearing the red, white and blue colors of both the American and Liberian flags. After meeting Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Obamas traveled a heavily potholed road to the town of Kakata, where they visited a Peace Corps-sponsored leadership camp for girls. "I...

For several years, so-called "food deserts"—low-income neighborhoods devoid of nutritious food options—were an oft-cited culprit for America's high obesity levels. Everyone from state senators to Michelle Obama had ideas about how to fix the issue, from launching new farmer's markets in these neighborhoods to state grant programs designed to entice more fruit-and-veggie offerings to bans on new fast-food restaurants opening in these areas. The kicker was a multi-million dollar federal initiative, spearheaded by the First Lady, to promote farmer's markets and attract more grocery-store chains to food-desert neighborhoods. "Since 2011, the Federal Government has spent almost $500 million to improve...

At Monday night's school board meeting, members voted to opt-out of the National School Lunch Program. The federally-funded program gives money to school districts who follow strict guidelines on what foods have to be served and the portion sizes of those foods. "I don't buy lunch because I prefer the choices I can have from home, and the choices here don't look very appetizing to me," senior Emily Graziano said. "I see the food, too, and it's not high quality. That's one of the reasons why I pack my lunch," sophomore Evan Portman said. The high school will lose the...

The White House's first black first lady will depart next year. Two commentators consider Michelle Obama's legacy as she prepares to leave office. Peter Slevin, author of Michelle Obama: A Life We are not likely to see another American first lady do the hula hoop on the White House lawn, practice kickboxing on an official video, dance in public to Uptown Funk or feed kale chips to comedians dressed in drag on late-night television. Alicia Garza, co-founder, Black Lives Matter Many have observed that Michelle Obama exemplified "black girl magic". She is a Harvard-trained lawyer with the middle name LaVaughn,...

Students at Penn-Trafford High School aren't buying that lunches prepared under federal guidelines that restrict calories, sodium and portions are their best option. So they literally are not buying them. "I would say, on average, we've lost about $20,000 a year each of the last five years," Penn-Trafford business manager Brett Lago said. "We are not in the food service industry to make money, but we don't want to lose it." School lunch participation nationally dropped from 31.6 million students in 2012 to 30.4 million in 2014, according to the federal Department of Agriculture. Pennsylvania statistics show school lunch participation...

More students are buying lunches at Bozeman schools since the district abandoned the National School Lunch Program after deeming the nutritional rules too strict. Revenues in the fall semester increased nearly $50,000 compared to the previous year. Last year the school board voted to let the high school drop out of the federal program, saying the nutritional guidelines were costing the cafeteria customers. Bozeman Public Schools Food Services Director Bob Burrows says the high schoolers weren't purchasing school lunches because they knew they wouldn’t get enough food. According to Burrows, the USDA set a one-size-fit- all approach for how many...

The decision by officials at a high school in Montana to give up $117,000 in federal money and drop Michelle Obama's healthy lunch program has proved to be a popular and profitable success. Business has been booming in Bozeman High School's cafeteria since its board members voted to drop the National School Lunch Program in a bid to keep students from leaving campus to eat. The lunch program set limits on calories, fat and salt in lunches and mandated that more whole grains, fruits and vegetables should be served in order to curb the onset of childhood obesity.

I started working last week at my old college in MD. Guess what came in the e-mail? Michelle is visiting us - tomorrow. What a way to start my job. Sorry so late but I've been SOOOO busy it's been hard to even read FR! Messages actually came out last week. If any local FReepers are interested....well, here you are.

Michelle Obama is dishing her younger self some sage words of wisdom in her latest Instagram clip with rapper Wale. Wale asked what she would like to do if she had a different occupation, and her answer may surprise you! "I would be Beyoncé," she said with a smile, while busting a "Single Ladies" dance move. "I got the hand up!" The two ladies have gotten quite close over the years, and Bey even performed at Michelle's 50th birthday party last year.

The Navy is implementing a plan to cut fried foods out of its chow halls, and some sailors aren’t pleased with it, taking aim at Michelle Obama. But it turns out there’s no reason for them to be busting out the #ThanksObama on social media. While the first lady has worked to get healthier food on the school lunch menu, she has nothing to do with setting the Navy’s nutrition policy. In addition to the elimination of fried foods, whole milk will be replaced with skim, while fruits and vegetables will be pushed more.

She was only 15 minutes late. That's amazing! After all, she is the First Lady of the United States. She has a busy schedule. She was scheduled to speak to the Girl Up Leadership Summit at 11:15 a.m. And by 11:27ish she was in the house. "You all look amazing," Michelle Obama told the 200-plus activists who represent some of the world's 1,000 Girl Up clubs. They'd come to Washington, D.C., to bond, to learn about girls' issues and to lobby Congress. But she also made two subtle and important points about activism. Point No. 1: Activism should be personal....

First lady Michelle Obama has a message for Native American youth: You matter. Speaking to the White House’s first-ever Tribal Youth Gathering on Thursday in Washington, D.C., the first lady said their generation has the power to turn around centuries of discrimination and put their communities on a better path. "I know you all can make the change you seek, day by day, vote by vote, eagle feather by eagle feather. That’s how we have always made progress in this country," Obama told the more than 1,000 youths. The gathering provides an opportunity for youths to interact with high-level government...

First Lady Michelle Obama is thankful for her life. At the More magazine Impact Awards at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the first lady credits her good life--and independence--to education. "Growing up -- and I remind these girls all the time -- I wasn’t any smarter, I wasn’t more talented than they are. But instead of having to work to support my family, or being married off to a grown man and forced to bear children before I was ready, I got to go to school so I could support myself, so I could make my own choices about my...

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama says she'll do more foreign travel to promote education for girls in developing countries. The first lady announced a new program earlier this year to help adolescent girls improve their lives by attending and staying in school. Mrs. Obama says the U.S. will continue to urge developed countries to join the effort. And when they join, she says "I'm going to hop on a plane and join them" to highlight the work.

Children are creating their own black markets to trade and sell salt due to First Lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules. During a hearing before the House, a school administrator told Congress of the “unintended consequences” of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. “Perhaps the most colorful example in my district is that students have been caught bringing–and even selling–salt, pepper, and sugar in school to add taste to perceived bland and tasteless cafeteria food,” said John S. Payne. “Students are avoiding cafeteria food,” Payne said. “More students bring their lunch, and a few parents even ‘check out’ their child from...

Michelle Obama is scheduled to speak at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Preparatory High School, located in the same neighborhood where the Obamas live on Chicago's South Side. The First Lady is also expected to give a special tribute to a young student of the school who was shot and killed two years ago. Hadiya Pendleton would have graduated from King College Prep Tuesday, two years after the teen was shot and killed. Obama will give the address at the school on the evening of June 9.

Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, are headed for Europe. This isn't the first time Obama and her daughters have visited Europe together. They also took a family trip to Northern Ireland in 2013 and in 2010 the First Lady took Sasha on a vacation to Spain's southern Mediterranean coast. The First Lady's mother, Marian Robinson, will accompany the Obama women on an upcoming trip to London, Milan and Vicenza, Italy, from June 15 to June 21, according to a press release from the Office of the First Lady Thursday.

First lady Michelle Obama advised the 2015 graduates at Oberlin that they'll find a world of clamor and conflict that will beset them outside the protected lives they've led in college. And, she told them, they should embrace it. Outside that atmosphere of safety, what Obama referred to as four years of "thoughtful, respectful discussion, debate and late-night conversations," she posited that graduates might find themselves "a little dismayed by the clamor outside these walls: the name calling, the negative ads, the folks yelling at each other on TV." "Today I want to suggest that if you truly wish to...

Social justice looms large for many, if not most, education journalists. We care about the often substandard education of low-income children and the gap between the haves and have-nots. Take a look at the winners of the Education Writers Association awards on April 20, 2015. Most were writers who told the stories of students in poverty. Beginning this school year and going forward, measuring and describing that poverty is about to get much muddier. That’s because the main statistic used to determine poverty in a school – the number of students who receive free or reduced-priced lunches – is starting...

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