Five fourth-graders from Kemper Elementary in Cortez helped first lady Michelle Obama plant her White House kitchen garden on Tuesday.

Students Miles Frost, Gael Garcia, Christian Rebaza, Cecelia Thom and Trenity Tillahash spent 45 minutes on Tuesday planting cabbage, lettuce, turnips and other vegetables on the South Lawn of the White House. Produce from the garden will be used for meals in the White House kitchen.

The White House broadcast the planting live at whitehouse.gov.

Christian said it was really fun to go to the White House and work with the first lady.

“I got to meet (Michelle Obama) and talk to her,” he said in a phone interview. “We talked about what kind of plants we have and how fun it’s been planting. She’s really nice.”

The Kemper students traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of the Montezuma School to Farm Project, a program of the Mancos Conservation District. The U.S. Department of Agriculture regional director identified the project to White House officials right away as a school gardening program that stood out in a multistate region, said Sarah Syverson, the program’s former director.

Obama started planting the garden in 2009 to raise awareness about health and well-being of the nation. In 2010, she started the “Let’s Move!” initiative to address American childhood obesity.

On Tuesday, Obama invited about 40 children from school garden programs in Louisiana, Wisconsin, Georgia and New Jersey to plant the garden along with the Kemper students.

NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and other NASA officials helped Obama plant the same variety of lettuce that has been grown on the International Space Station.

Though it was the final time Obama will plant the garden as first lady, she said Tuesday she hoped the tradition would continue. “This is my baby,” she said. “Hopefully, this won’t be the last planting.”

Obama also said she would soon be starting a tour of “surprise visits” to school garden programs across the nation.

Watch the video

Watch the video of the Kemper kids with first lady Michelle Obama at

1.usa.gov/1XfAkeN

.