President Barack Obama summoned allies, skeptics and health care figures of all stripes to the White House Thursday to debate ideas for overhauling the nation's costly health care system.
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ABC News' Luis Martinez reports: The Army has had another bad month for suicides within its ranks with 18 suspected suicides during the month of February. That is a decrease from January's record-high of 24 suspected suicides, but one Army...
Michelle Obama's soup-kitchen duty
by Mark Silva
First Lady Michelle Obama stopped in at Miriam's Kitchen, a soup line for the homeless just seven blocks from the White House.
Tucked in the basement of Western Presbyterian Church in Foggy Bottom, and recognized for its work with the homeless for 26 years, the kitchen serves breakfast for 200 to 250 a daymainly men, according to Sara Gibson, director of development. The privately funded kitchen has the help of more than 1,200 volunteers.
The homeless here are called "guests''"because it's all about dignity,'' Gibson says. On average, the guests have been homeless for nearly five years.
Today, Obama became the first first lady to volunteer here, Gibson says, though Karen Hughes, a senior aide to former President George W. Bush, had pitched in at the kitchen. The first lady made it clear that she hopes to set an example for other volunteers.
"We're really just thrilled that our new neighbors took notice of what we're doing," said Gibson.
A White House-wide food drive yielded several cases of fresh fruit, delivered the night before, enough to offer fruit at almost two weeks of meals, according to executive director Scott Schenkelberg,
The first lady ladled Mushroom Risotto cooked in chicken stock from a steam table in the kitchen, the men and women lining appearing "genuinely delighted by her presence,'' pool reporter Paul West of the Tribune Washington Bureau tells us.
"We are facing tough times in this country,'' Obama said, and it is important to help those who have no place to live. Miriam's Kitchen "is an example of what we can do, as a country and as a community, to help folks when they're down... We're all going to need one another in these times. We're going to need to keep lifting each other up, in prayer and in hope.
"We're going to continue to be a part of Miriam's Kitchen, and other facilities just like this across the country, and we urge everyone listening . . . to think about ways they can become involved, too,'' the first lady said.
A wheelchair-bound Pierre D. Carter, 61, suggested that homelessness "is getting worse, and there's more people coming in here every day. Carter, wearing a well-worn Obama cap which he said he had owned for some time, clasped the first lady's hand: "God bless you," he told her. "I guarantee you four more years."
(With thanks to Paul West of the Tribune Washington Bureau for superb pool reporting from Miriam's Kitchen).
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