President Clinton took center stage in the cafeteria, explaining his, change your food, change your life mission. The secret to success in more ways than you might think. 

 

"Every single day if you make a few mistakes, if you do something that doesn't work, it's OK," President Clinton said. "You're creating an organic on-going endeavor that is literally the secret to how we should deal with our economy and deal with our other big challenges." 

 

The challenge at hand is childhood obesity. Coachella Valley schools are now among 15,000 nationwide committed to the Alliance For A Healthier Generation.

 

"The epidemic of childhood obesity has taken hold throughout our valley, and we need to raise awareness and take action and do something about it," Kay Hazen, Vice President of Desert Healthcare Foundation said. 

 

The mission starts here by creating healthier campuses with more physical activity and better food.

 

"There aren't very many places in the country which are geographically compact enough with their diversities in all these areas so that you're small enough to be able to make a difference, but big enough to be able to impact what other people think about what they're doing," President Clinton said.

 

President Clinton stresses community involvement is key to winning the fight against fat.

 

"The whole future of America depends on creative cooperation, on networks of people solving problems. I said this yesterday, if you look everywhere in America where the economy has already come back to full steam, there is without exception, a culture, a whole Eco-system if you will, of people working together," President Clinton said.

 

--Adrianna Weingold

aweingold@kmir6.com