Jon Traunfeld and Debbie Debbie Ricigliano pose in front of the White House at the 2013 Easter Egg Roll.
Image Credit: Ria Malloy
For the second year in a row, a group of University of Maryland Extension (UME) experts spent part of their Easter weekend at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the First family. A team of six faculty, staff and Master Gardeners from UME’s Grow It Eat It program was invited to attend the 135th White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 1 to help educate children and families about food gardening, nutrition, insects and more.
More than 30,000 people from all 50 states swarmed the White House South Lawn for games, demonstrations, stories and of course, the traditional egg roll.
“We educated many young, budding gardeners,” says Jon Traunfeld, the state Master Gardener coordinator and Director of UME’s Home and Garden Information Center. “They especially enjoyed ‘planting practice’ with corn, pea, and pumpkin seeds and rubbing the leaves of herb plants and sniffing their fingers. Loads of military families were present. Service people who move frequently love their container gardens.”
The Grow It Eat It demonstration table was colorfully adorned with fruits and vegetables of all types like carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, swiss chard and various herbs. In addition to the potting soil, kids could also get up close and personal with plastic replicas of various insects and their life cycles.
“We were just amazed at the kids’ sustained level of interest in everything on our table -- the fact that you could grow a salad in a box, the smells of fresh herbs, the variety of vegetables that can be grown in a home garden,” says Ria Malloy, Business Manager with the Home and Garden Information Center. “They could not wait to get their hands in the soil to plant seeds. Even though it was only a practice activity, they wanted to add water and watch them grow right then!”
Crowds kept members of the UME team busy from 7:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Their table was appropriately stationed right next to First lady Michelle Obama’s own kitchen garden and they enjoyed pointing out what was growing over the fence for the steady stream of visitors.
Various activities at the White House Easter Egg roll were designed to educate families on smart ways to incorporate healthy eating and exercise choices in their daily routines – key pillars of First lady Michell Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
