Michelle Obama Speaks At 'Bringing A Healthier Future' Summit

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke in Washington on Friday about the importance of healthy school lunches across America and the steps necessary to make healthy lunches the norm. She asked Americans to put politics aside and their children first.

"Moms, think about this. I don't care what state you live in. Take me out of the equation," she said on stage at the Building a Healthier Future Summit. "Think about why someone is okay with your kids eating crap," she said, referring to those who do not support her initiatives.

Those who do not support her initiatives include the School Nutrition Association, a lobbying group, which has fought to roll back school food regulations. CNN reported that the group specifically recommended that the US Department of Agriculture allow saltier foods that would have otherwise been allowed and cutting current whole grain requirements in half.

"Why would you celebrate that?" Obama asked the crowd at the summit. "Why would you sit idly and be okay with that?"

"We need to demand everyone to care deeply about our kids," she said. Referring to the loose guidelines on school lunches, she said "we got here because we weren't paying attention. Before you know it, your kids have type-2 diabetes and you're confused and shocked and hurt. And I hope you have health care."

The former First Lady has been an outspoken advocate of promoting kids' health and fitness for years. The Let's Move campaign, which was launched in 2010, aimed to tackle the health problem by informing and empowering parents to make healthy choices for their kids, promote healthy and affordable food access and promote increased activity among our youth.

"In the end, as First Lady, this isn’t just a policy issue for me. This is a passion. This is my mission. I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids thinks about food and nutrition," she said about Let's Move.

At the summit on Friday, she said about America's kids, "we owe them our best. We owe them putting aside our politics. We owe it to them not give up, to be honest, true... empathetic, and compassionate."

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