I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

While budgets are tight right now, there are schools across the country that are showing that it doesn't take a whole lot of money or resources to give our kids the nutrition they deserve. What it does take, however, is effort. What it does take is imagination. What it does take is a commitment to our children's futures.

I try to tell young people to get in shape now, because it's easier. If you're 30 and want to drop 10 pounds, all you have to do is just walk.

Even if we give parents all the information they need and we improve school meals and build brand new supermarkets on every corner, none of that matters if when families step into a restaurant, they can't make a healthy choice.

Some kids have never seen what a real tomato looks like off the vine. They don't know where a cucumber comes from. And that really affects the way they view food. So a garden helps them really get their hands dirty, literally, and understand the whole process of where their food comes from. And I wanted them to see just how challenging and rewarding it is to grow your own food, so that they would better understand what our farmers are doing every single day across this country and have an appreciation for ... that American tradition of growing our own food and feeding ourselves.

I talk about the food issue, I'm really coming at it from pre-White House times, when I was a working mother with a busy husband, a very demanding job and two little kids to feed.... I had to learn what it means to feed and care for your kids in a country where fast food is abundant, where time is a rarity, where eating out is a trend, because families are so busy.... Yes, I'm First Lady, but I know the struggles.