Posted on 10/06/2008 6:28:47 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Will Allen was cutting heads of lettuce in a farm field when his cell phone rang.
The caller told him to put down his knife. He had good news:
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, known for its annual award of “genius” grants, was giving Allen $500,000 — no strings attached.
Allen is not your typical farmer. He is the founder of Growing Power, a nonprofit farm in the middle of Milwaukee that raises fresh produce for under-served populations with high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
The son of an illiterate laborer, Allen has been a leading figure in urban agriculture for a decade. Thanks to the growth of the local foods movement, and now the MacArthur fellowship, his approach of melding sustainable farming and mentoring kids is gaining broader attention.
At 6 feet 7 inches tall and 280 pounds, Allen is a former professional basketball player with the biceps of an NFL lineman.
He is not a table-pounder, but he is passionate about his long-held beliefs: Good food helps build healthy communities, and the costs of relying on food that travels long distances have become too great.
“You have to figure out how to grow food closer to where people live,” Allen, 59, said in an interview in his office crammed with boxes of yellow tomatoes and bags of greens.
“We are in a worldwide food crisis and worldwide energy crisis.”
The half-million-dollar genius grant, doled out over five years, won’t solve those problems.
Allen was vague about his plans for the prize money, saying only that he has a foundation that provides college scholarships for youths he mentors, and he wants “to get more good food into communities.”
A farm in the city
From the street, Growing Power does not look like a farm. Goats prance about in pens and chickens peck the dirt. But there are no fields with rows of crops.
Fish and vegetables are raised in a densely packed warren of greenhouses at Growing Power headquarters, N. 55th St. and W. Silver Spring Drive.
When the MacArthur Foundation announced its annual awards last month, representatives declined to elaborate on why recipients were chosen.
“The idea is that we are not looking so much at what people have accomplished, but what they will do, their vision and commitment,” said Daniel Socolow, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program.
“We are betting on them.”
Others are, too.
“Nationally, a lot of people look to Will as a pivotal figure for finding ways to make urban agriculture more viable,” said Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, based in Portland, Ore., which advocates for affordable food.
“Will is like an evangelist,” said Young Kim, executive director of the Fondy Food Center and Fondy Farmers Market at 2200 W. Fond du Lac Ave., just north of North Ave. “He’s essential for the good-foods movement to move forward, and to make a difference in central cities. We need more Will Allens.”
As a boy, Allen dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player. He aimed a flashlight at a rim on a tree near his house to practice well after dark, and slept with a basketball at the foot of his bed. A high school state champion, he became the first African-American to play basketball for the University of Miami, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education and met his wife, Cynthia.
After graduating from college, Allen played professional basketball in Miami for the Floridians of the old American Basketball Association, and then in Europe.
The Allens moved to Milwaukee, Cynthia’s hometown, when he retired from basketball in 1977.
Allen then turned to another constant from his childhood — raising vegetables such as collard greens, turnips and okra. He bought a junkyard tractor, plowed idle farmland in Oak Creek owned by his wife’s family, and spent years selling his vegetables at local markets. He honed his sales and management skills through jobs at Marcus Corp. and Procter & Gamble.
He bought the Growing Power property with two dilapidated greenhouses in 1993 for “totally selfish reasons,” he said. The location on a busy street was a good place to sell his produce. He could use the greenhouses to start plants.
The business evolved into a nonprofit as Allen began showing young people how to raise vegetables, and started thinking of food and farming as a tool for social change.
Growing Power was founded in 1995. Last year, it reported revenue of $1.7 million from government grants, produce sales and fees for sharing expertise.
The organization has struggled financially from the start. It lost a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture this year, forcing Allen and his board of directors to look for other sources of revenue. Also, court records show numerous examples involving Allen and past-due debts, including delinquent tax payments to the state Department of Revenue.
“Over the years, as I was paying this place off and funding Growing Power, I was pretty much always late on something,” Allen said.
Dream of a vertical farm
One of Growing Power’s hallmarks is its ability to grow an abundance of food in cramped quarters.
Pots of salad greens fill the shelves of greenhouses and spill across the property.
Tilapia and, more recently, fish-fry-bound perch are raised in greenhouse pools in a system that uses gravel and plants such as tomatoes to filter the waste.
The fish pools and greenhouses are the foundation for Allen’s most ambitious plans.
He wants to build a $10 million, five-story vertical farm at Growing Power, which would offer a larger retail store, offices and classrooms to expand the teaching mission.
He also wants to build a $1 million system that would use a large vat, jury-rigged with duct tape, to help convert food waste into methane, a renewable energy source.
No plans have been finalized by Growing Power’s board of directors, according to board President Jerome Kaufman.
Raising that much money, he said, would be the organization’s greatest challenge.
“Yes, it will be a major shift,” said Kaufman, a professor emeritus of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But Will is an innovator. He has started new ventures. He has done this all of his career.”
Allen may be forced to scale back his plans, said one of his major supporters, Milwaukee philanthropist Lynde Uihlein. “The donor knowledge base about these kinds of programs is still pretty low.”
But Uihlein, daughter of the late Jane Bradley Pettit, believes in Allen. She has given $280,000 to Growing Power since 1996 through her foundation, the Brico Fund. Her foundation also extended a $100,000 credit line for Growing Power’s operating expenses.
When she first met Allen at a community event, Uihlein was already interested in organic agriculture and helping disadvantaged kids.
“Will knocked my socks off,” she said. “He spoke to me in so many ways.”
Allen said he hoped the MacArthur grant would allow him to focus on long-term planning and fund raising. He is counting on several key employees to manage operations, including co-director Jay Salinas, who has a background in community-supported agriculture.
Sense of family
The other co-director, Karen Parker, has worked with Allen since Growing Power started. She considers him a “gentle giant” father figure.
“He’s a hard worker, and he doesn’t take excuses for not getting the job done,” Parker said. His management style, she said, is “Will’s Way.”
“You could get that vibe from him,” said former employee Anthony Jackson, who graduated from UW-Stevens Point after Allen encouraged him to go to college. “He could really be demanding. But that’s life.”
On his way to his high school senior prom, Jackson stopped by Growing Power to introduce his date to Allen and have pictures taken in the greenhouse.
Allen cultivates a sense of family.
He has been known to whip up a breakfast of yellow squash and zucchini omelets after employees unload a produce truck at 3 a.m., or to make fried catfish and fried green tomatoes for the whole staff just because he’s hungry.
His desire to feed others goes back to his childhood on a farm outside Washington, D.C., where his mother worked as a housekeeper. His father was a laborer and kept a large garden to feed the family and anyone else who dropped by.
Allen’s older brother, Joe, said the boys spent long hours plowing the land and pulling weeds. “There was always food on the stove,” Joe said. “And Willie ate more than anybody.”
You are right, it is very interesting.
ping to me
Yes this is a wonderful project.
And, like you Diana, I could see me getting into something like that here.
Neat how he is raising the fish in the greenhouse too.
I LOVED that idea. Even just raising bait would be an added money maker - minnows or red wigglers. :)
Some nights out in the yard, with no help from me, we have night crawlers as long as your arm. They’d bring a pretty penny.
Thanks Gabz for both pings:
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Posted on 10/09/2008 10:05:41 AM PDT by Joiseydude
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2101478/posts
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