Obama Girls on School Lunch Poster: White House Protests

The White House is protesting a nonprofit organization's posters that reference President Obama's daughters while advocating nutritious lunches in public schools. The posters -- which do not use the Obama girls' image or names -- feature a photo of a girl with a thought balloon over her head, saying: "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?"

The posters are part of an ad campaign by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which wants Congress to reform the Child Nutrition Act and have schools serve more fruits and vegetables and offer low-fat vegetarian options.

Both Sasha and Malia Obama attend the private Sidwell Friends School, where the lunch menu is a healthy one, with lots of fruits and vegetables, mostly organic. It also provides a vegetarian option daily.

The 14 posters were put up on Aug. 3 at the Union Station Metro stop in Washington. "The main reason we put the posters there, of course, is for congressional staffers who get off at Union Station and they have to walk down that corridor," PCRM's media relations manager, Jeanne McVey, told the The Washington Post.

One day after the posters went up, White House Associate Counsel Karen Dunn and Deputy Associate Counsel Ian Bassin called PCRM President Neal Barnard to request he pull the campaign, according to The Post.

"They're very nice people. I like them a lot," Barnard said. "But they called and said: Please take those down, you can't mention the kids and so forth. . . . They felt that mentioning the president's children was off-limits. They said [they're] not going to allow the use of their daughters as leverage."

Sidwell Friends School -- where the Obamas pay annual tuition of $29,842 for the lower school and $30,842 for the middle school -- provides parents with a weekly list of its lunch menu.

The Web site TMZ acquired the menu from the week the girls started school in January. Lunch options included: organic spinach salad, local pumpkin and sage soup, garden vegetable pie, Bell & Evans roasted chicken tenderloins and fresh organic strawberries.

"President Obama's daughters can choose a vegetarian meal every day and are likely to stay slim and healthy," notes Barnard in a press release. "At most other schools, children have few choices other than meaty, cheesy fare."

In the U.S., childhood obesity is at an all-time high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes at some point in his or her life.

Barnard is still in communication with the Office of the White House Counsel, which asked Barnard to remain "open" to further discussion. Barnard says the posters have gotten a positive response, however, so he plans to leave them up until Aug. 31, the end of the ad schedule.

Jasmine Messiah, the 8-year-old Florida girl pictured in the poster, is a vegetarian. She says that her Miami-Dade County public school does not offer a vegetarian or vegan lunch option. Jasmine is sending a letter to Sasha and Malia to ask them directly to support healthier school lunches for all American children.

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