APPLETON, WIS. — Social entrepreneur and “urban farmer” Will Allen shares his holistic approach to growing food in the Lawrence University address “Rich Food for All People” Wednesday, May 20 at 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The talk is free and open to the public.
Leaving the corporate world of Proctor & Gamble in 1993, Allen turned a love of farming into an innovative, small scale, food system designed to combat what he has called the “food deserts” of America, inner cities where the only access to food is corner grocery stories and their assortment of beer, cigarettes and processed foods.
Two years after buying the last remaining registered farm within the city limits of Milwaukee, Allen founded Growing Power, Inc., a nonprofit organization and land trust that supports people from diverse backgrounds by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food in underserved urban communities.
Combining a variety of low-cost farming technologies, including the use of raised beds, aquaculture and vermiculture and the sweat equity of some 2,000 resident volunteers, many of them teenagers, Allen and his staff of less than 40 raises nearly $500,000 worth of affordable, chemical-free vegetables, meat and fish on a two-acre farming site. He also oversees a nearby 40-acre farm and several gardens throughout Milwaukee.
He has expanded his operations to Chicago, including a garden at the Cabrini Green housing project and urban farms in Grant and Jackson Parks.
Over the last decade, Allen has formed partnerships with several local organizations, including Farm-City Market Basket Program, which provides a weekly basket of fresh produce grown by members of the Rainbow Farmer’s Cooperative to low-income urban residents at a reduced cost.
In 2008, the MacArthur Foundation recognized Allen’s practical solution to inner city hunger with one of its $500,000 so called “genius” grants. He is only the second working farmer in the 28-year history of the program to win a MacArthur award.
