Will allen urban agriculture ❤️ Updated 2022

What has Will Allen done for urban farming?

In 2008, he was awarded the MacArthur Foundation ” Genius Grant ” for his work on urban farming and sustainable food production. In 2009, the Kellogg Foundation gave Allen a grant to create jobs in urban agriculture. Will Allen appears in the documentary film, Fresh.

Is will Allen farms still in business?

Under increasing debt after two decades of operation, the nonprofit discontinued in 2017. Allen remains active on the site in north Milwaukee through his company Will Allen Farms, LLC. In 2005, Allen was awarded a Ford Foundation leadership grant on behalf of his urban farming work.

Is Steve Allen retiring from groundwork Milwaukee?

Deneine Powell, Groundwork Milwaukee’s executive director, told Civil Eats she was in regular communication with Allen and that she was under the impression that he planned to retire. Sales also seemed certain about Allen’s retirement, and reported that he was “always hinting at retirement” and grooming Sales as a successor.

Who is Will Allen in the documentary fresh?

Will Allen appears in the documentary film, Fresh. The film refers to Allen as “one of the most influential leaders of the food security and urban farming movement.”

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Where did Will Allen get his B.A.?

Will Allen received a B.A. (1971) from the University of Miami. After a brief career in professional basketball and a number of years in corporate marketing at Procter and Gamble, he returned to his roots as a farmer. He has served as the founder and CEO of Growing Power, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1995 and has taught workshops to aspiring urban farmers across the United States and abroad.

When did Allen start Growing Power?

In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded.

Who is the CEO of Growing Power?

Will Allen continues to serve as CEO of Growing Power, Inc., which has expanded its programs throughout the Milwaukee and Chicago areas, and he is involved in community food projects across the country.

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What is Will’s new soil idea?

Over the past 18 years, using his new soil idea, Will has transformed his little urban plot into the headquarters for Growing Power, an organization that promotes sustainable farming through demonstration, education, and outreach programs.

What is growing power?

Growing Power not only provides education and hands on experience to those who wish to learn about urban farming, it makes farm fresh vegetables and meats available to all Milwaukee residents, regardless of race, income, or address . Will Allen has been a farmer as far back as he can remember. He grew up on a farm just outside …

Will Allen be a farmer?

Will Allen has been a farmer as far back as he can remember. He grew up on a farm just outside of Washington DC, and his after school and summer hours consisted of farm work first, then play later. “My dad was a sharecropper, and he wanted us to know where our food came from,” Will said.

Who is the most famous farmer in Milwaukee?

W ill Allen has long been Milwaukee’s most famous farmer. Preaching and teaching sustainable, pesticide-free urban agriculture, he built his Northwest Side-based nonprofit, Growing Power, into a globally recognized leader in the field and along the way saw his own profile grow to international dimensions. When news dropped last November that, …

When did Will’s Roadside Farm start?

It’s kind of like going back to when I first started. For the first two years, it started out as Will’s Roadside Farm, back in 1993. That was before we became Growing Power, a nonprofit.

Is Allen still doing what he’s always done?

In the inaugural MilMag Interview, Allen reveals that he’s still doing what he’s always done, where he’s always done it. He also talks goats, the downside of nonprofits, the indignities of aging and how comfort comes from casting about in the man-made pond at his home.

What award did Allen win for Growing Power?

Growing Power’s expansion can be attributed, in part, to the MacArthur Genius Award Allen received in 2008, and the half-million-dollar prize that came with it. It also garnered high-level attention from the media, the food world, and former President Clinton.

What did Allen teach his children?

In drafty old greenhouses, Allen taught low-income children how to grow compost in rows of wooden boxes. Worms fed on decomposing vegetables, circuitously depositing dense nutrients into the soil and creating healthy compost, which was then sold by the organization. The compost was an essential part of the work.

What can the demise of Growing Power teach the food movement?

What can the demise of Growing Power teach the food movement? For some, collaboration (or lack thereof) was a prominent theme. Sales speculates that an inadvertent siloing of Growing Power left it too exposed. “One organization cannot take on that big of a task; you need multiple organizations that will work as part of the spokes on a wheel,” he said. Meanwhile, Allen echoed his daughter’s sentiments that a lack of oversight by board members compromised the organization’s financial health.

What was the growing power award?

Where is the last farm in Milwaukee?

In 1993, Allen bought the city’s last remaining farm at 5500 Silver Springs on Milwaukee’s north side, four miles from the nearest grocery store and five blocks from the nearest public housing projects. What grew from that 19th century greenhouse could not be measured in pounds, bushels, or even dollars.

Who is Andy Fisher?

Andy Fisher, the co-founder of the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC)—a food justice organization on whose board of directors Allen served for six years—had seen Allen as “an inspiring and charismatic leader.”.

Who is Stephen Satterfield?

(Photo credit: Growing Power) Stephen Satterfield is the Culinary Trust fellow for Civil Eats. He is a food writer, activist, and digital media producer dedicated to helping people deepen their connection to food.

Overview

Urban farming

Will Allen’s parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina until they took part in the Great Migration and moved to Rockville, Maryland, where Allen grew up.
Finishing a career in marketing, Allen left a job at Procter & Gamble in 1993 and purchased a derelict plant nursery that was in foreclosure, located on the north side of Milwaukee. Around this time, Allen also purchased a 100-acre farm in Oak Creek, previously owned by his wife’s parents.

Basketball career

Will Allen was a high school state champion in basketball at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland Allen played collegiately for the Miami Hurricanes at the University of Miami, where he was on a basketball scholarship. He was the first African-American to play basketball for the University of Miami.
After college Allen was selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the 4th round (60th pick overall) of the 1971 …

External links

• The 2010 Time 100 — Heroes: Will Allen; Time, April 29, 2010
• 10 Milliarden: Wie werden alle satt?