President Bill Clinton first joined Rachael in the kitchen when she launched her Yum-o! organization and announced a partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to teach families about healthy eating and combat childhood obesity. With a new administration in place, Rachael asks President Clinton for his opinion on the progress being made on this issue. "I think the fact that the first family planted a garden on the White House lawn will have as big an impact as almost anything they can do," President Clinton says. "I also believe you're going to see new initiatives coming out of Congress to help these schools. The Secretary of Agriculture is terrific, really understands these issues very well. I predict that the federal government will have a much more family-friendly policy and they'll really push these things. But I think they're off to a great start."

President Clinton continues, "It's important to understand that hunger and childhood obesity ironically go hand in hand, because the people who suffer from obesity are most likely to come from families that are just marginally above the line of needing food, so they use limited funds to buy high-caloric content at low cost. It's all they can afford. We may have 2 million people in New York City this year who are food short, so we're trying to raise enough money to feed the people who are hungry, and yet the obesity problem is going up with it."

He adds that the current economic crisis could have a negative effect on their mission. "I've been so worried that with these financial problems schools would drop their healthy eating programs, undermine the quality of the food offered in the school, the exercise programs would go down again, so we have to work on them both at the same time. They're both a function of economic distress. It's just a question of where you are on the line of need." For more information, check out President Clinton's Facebook page, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and Rachael's Yum-o! organization.

With Mother's Day on Sunday, Rachael asks what's on the agenda for the Clinton family. "Chelsea and I are going to take Hillary and her mother, who will soon be 90 years old, out for Mother's Day," he tells Rachael. "It'll be great." But just because they'll be dining out doesn't mean the president is trying to get out of cooking at home. "I cooked for Hillary a lot," he explains. "We were married for a decade before she cooked for me as much as I cooked for her. I liked to cook when I was younger."

For the next time the former president gets back in the kitchen, Rachael shows him a healthy recipe that the whole family can enjoy, Lemon Pepper Chicken with Cheesy Spinach Rice Pilaf.

Related Links

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation

Yum-o!