For Immediate Release
Contact:
Roger Doiron
roger@kitchengardeners.org
phone: (207) 883-5341
100,000 Applaud Announcement of a New White House Food Garden
Environment, Nation’s Food System and People's Health Stand to Benefit
(Scarborough, Maine) –100,000 people have signed a petition asking the Obamas to replant a Victory Garden
at the White House, and recent news reports indicate that they are about to reap what they sowed.
For advocates of sustainable and healthy foods, this harvest of good news was as welcome as the summer’s
first red-ripe tomato. “I’m thrilled for the Obama family and for all who will be inspired by their example to grow
gardens of their own this year,” said Roger Doiron, founder of the nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International
and leader of the successful petition campaign, “Eat the View.”
Launched in February 2008, Eat the View proposed that the Obamas replant a White House Victory Garden
and reserve part of the produce for local food pantries. The campaign used viral videos and social networking
technologies like Facebook to grow a large support base, attract international media attention and help inspire
similar grassroots efforts. In January, 2009, Eat the View won the “On Day One” contest sponsored by the
United Nations Foundation, beating out 4,000 other entries and resulting in thousands of messages being sent
to the White House in support of its proposal.
Over the course of the past month, the Eat the View campaign has touted the economic benefits of home
gardens as part of its pitch to White House staff members. As proof, Doiron and his wife spent nine months
weighing and recording each vegetable they pulled from their 1,600-square-foot garden outside Portland,
Maine. After counting the final winter leaves of salad, they found that they had saved about $2,150 by growing
produce for their family of five instead of buying it. “If you consider that there are millions of American families
who could be making similar, home-grown savings, those are no small potatoes,” Doiron said.
Although the White House garden campaign is now winding down, Doiron says the Eat the View campaign is
just getting warmed up. “Now that the Obamas are on board, we’re going to be reaching out to other people
and identifying other high-profile pieces of land that could be transformed into edible landscapes. Sprawling
lawns around governors’ residences, schoolyards, vacant urban lots: those are all views that should be eaten.”
www.foodandsocietyfellows.org
History of Harvest at the White House
While the Obamas’ garden and the online technologies that campaigned for it might be new, the idea of an
edible landscape at the White House is not. Throughout its history, the White House has been home to food
gardens of different shapes and sizes and even to a lawn-mowing herd of sheep in 1918. The appeal of the
White House garden project, Doiron asserts, is that it serves as a bridge between the country’s past and its
future. “The last time food was grown on the White House lawn was in 1943, when the country was at war, the
economy was struggling and people were looking to the First Family for leadership. It made sense before and it
makes sense again as we try to live within our own means and those of the planet.”
About Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI):
KGI is a nonprofit network of over 10,000 gardeners from 100 countries who are working together to help
individuals, families, and communities achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of
kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems. In doing so, KGI seeks to connect,
serve, and expand the global community of people who grow some of their own food. For more info, see:
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/
Additional info:
Eat the View campaign website:
http://www.eattheview.org/
History the White House as an edible landscape from 1800 to the present:
http://www.eattheview.org/page/history-1
www.foodandsocietyfellows.org