The Obama Presidential Center, opening on the South Side of Chicago in 2025, has announced plans for a fruit and vegetable garden, a nod to the former first lady Michelle Obama’s focus on healthy eating. But its name honors another “trailblazer and humanitarian” who amplified “her husband’s agenda,” Eleanor Roosevelt, said Valerie Jarrett, the chief executive of the Obama Foundation. The planned garden will incorporate produce that is culturally significant to Chicago and the experience of Black people in the United States, and the crops will be used for food service at the center. The center is working with the Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, which turns vacant lots into community gardens on the South Side. “One of the goals of the presidential center is to not just educate people on the President and Mrs. Obama’s legacy, but also to help people learn and take action into their own lives,” Ms. Jarrett said.
Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit and Vegetable Garden, the Obama Presidential Center, obama.org/the-center.
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