Michelle Obama announced last week that she has co-founded a company to make and sell healthier food and drinks for kids, products she says will be less detrimental to their long-term health because of their lower sugar and higher nutrient content. The former first lady's work with PLEZi Nutrition is an extension of her efforts to improve child nutrition when she was in the White House. "I've learned that on this issue, if you want to change the game, you can't just work from the outside," she said in her keynote address to a New York conference on the future. "You've got to get inside. You've got to find ways to change the food and beverage industry itself," Obama said. "So today, I'm proud to announce the national launch of a company designed not just to provide better products, but to jump-start what I hope will be a race to the top that will transform the entire food industry." Obama said she's a co-founder and strategic partner of PLEZi Nutrition. She will work behind the scenes on its educational and philanthropic efforts. Obama said kids still are not getting the recommended levels of nutrients and are eating and drinking too much sugar, an average of 53 pounds per year. Sugary drinks are youngsters' main source of added sugar, she said, adding that nearly two-thirds of them have such a drink every day. PLEZi Nutrition, based in the District of Columbia, is a public benefit corporation, meaning it was created for the public's benefit and will balance its profit needs with its mission to help improve child nutrition. Obama also announced that the company is donating $1 million to an initiative by FoodCorps, a nonprofit that is working to help all 50 million students in the U.S. receive education about nutrition and free school meals by 2030. PLEZi will also contribute 10% of its profits to the broader movement to improve child nutrition.
Italian conductor Riccardo Muti plans to visit Syrian musicians living in the vast Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on the sidelines of his annual Roads of Friendship concert series, which aims to use music to build bridges and help those affected by war. Muti will conduct Italian and Jordanian musicians in July concerts set in ancient Roman amphitheaters in Jerash, Jordan, and Pompeii. The concerts will pay homage to the "generosity of the Jordanian people" for taking in millions of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war in the neighboring country, the Ravenna festival announced. While in Jordan, Muti plans to visit the Zaatari camp, home to about 80,000 refugees nearly 11 years after it was set up near the Syrian border. He and a delegation from the festival will meet with musicians among the Syrian diaspora, bringing instruments as gifts.
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during WSJ's Future of Everything Festival, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, in New York. Obama says she's working behind the scenes with a new company that will make and sell food and drinks for kids that have less sugar and more nutrients. She says the products from PLEZi Nutrition will be less detrimental to children's long-term health because they contain less sugar and more nutrients. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during WSJ's Future of Everything Festival, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, in New York. Obama says she's working behind the scenes with a new company that will make and sell food and drinks for kids that have less sugar and more nutrients. She says the products from PLEZi Nutrition will be less detrimental to children's long-term health because they contain less sugar and more nutrients. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during WSJ's Future of Everything Festival, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, in New York. Obama says she's working behind the scenes with a new company that will make and sell food and drinks for kids that have less sugar and more nutrients. She says the products from PLEZi Nutrition will be less detrimental to children's long-term health because they contain less sugar and more nutrients. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during WSJ's Future of Everything Festival, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, in New York. Obama says she's working behind the scenes with a new company that will make and sell food and drinks for kids that have less sugar and more nutrients. She says the products from PLEZi Nutrition will be less detrimental to children's long-term health because they contain less sugar and more nutrients. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)