The willingness to get your hands dirty was part of an invitation offered to an elite group.

Although planting backyard gardens and making trips to the farmers market are part of — or maybe an aspiration of — many of us, we’re adults. Sometimes it’s a little harder to get kids into the yard to help out.

But maybe that depends on who’s doing the asking.

Fifty students and educators traveled from all over the country to Washington yesterday to help First Lady Michelle Obama harvest the first crop from the White House kitchen garden as part of her initiative to fight obesity, Let’s Move!

That group included Richmond students Amina Abdulkadir, a fourth-grader at Ridge Elementary, and Lilah Monroe, a fifth-grader at Springfield Park Elementary. The two had learned how to plant and harvest vegetables in summer programs at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, which is part of Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens program.

After helping out in the morning, Abdulkadir and Monroe, along with the rest of the group, ate the products of their labor with the First Lady at lunch in the White House — and clean plates no doubt soared to record numbers.