Growing Power

[LoreD]

I wanted to tell everyone in the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison WI area about a tremendous group of people called Growing Power.

I just started buying their garden baskets. They grow vegetables in greenhouses during the winter. 20-25 pounds of organic vegetables for $28. Broccoli so fresh that I didn't even need to peel it. Pea and sunflower sprouts, baby greens, organic eggs, potatoes, organic fresh fruit.

Its a bit of a drive for me, but well worth it. I can eat well and help people at the same time.

www.growingpower.org

LoreD

[bluelacedredhead]

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. I'm sure that the CSA's in this area are pricier than that. So considering the large Metropolitan area that GrowingPower is serving, how wonderful for their clients.
I guess you're eating well this winter. Lucky Lore

[Dan]

Very very cool. We don't have much in this region due to the winter. Fresh baby greens in the winter sound delicious.

[LoreD]

One of the great things about Growing Power is their emphasis on rehabilitation. One of their greenhouse managers in Chicago is a former drug dealer. They teach urban kids how to garden. They rent abandoned properties from the city ($1 per year), set up greenhouses and community gardens and when the property is sold they pick up their stuff and move to another property.


Will Allen is MacArthur fellow for his work.

LoreD

[bluelacedredhead]

Lore, that makes it even more special than just being a CSA. Bless You for supporting their work with children and rehabilitation.

[ceara]

I absolutely adore those kinds of projects. A group should go to the Detroit area. There is a lot of land that has turned to weeds because so many people moved away after all the car manufacturing plants screwed people out of a job.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=02x8EHXPfB0 Just for one example.

I will spread the word about Growing Power. I have my own little campaigns online to spread the word about supporting CSAs and encourage people to grow something, things like mesclun lettuce in a window box. And the Grow a Row, to get gardeners to grow a bit extra to give to the food banks. Have you seen what they give folks in the bread lines? Mostly processed, packaged food and maybe if they are lucky, a bag of apples.

[bunkie]

wonderful lored! thanks for sharing! will spread the word also!

[Alan]

I've been following Will Allens growing power project for a little while now, they do absolutely wonderful work and they are spreading the word about inner city agriculture. Recently they have been working with an upstart group in Louisville Kentucky called breaking new ground which gives me hope for that little city by the river!

[PatrickW]

Will Allen was in Holland a few years ago, I think around the time he got the MacArthur fellowship. The way his visit was arranged was a little strange. I guess because of the prestige of the fellowship, it was more arranged through universities and the like, and I didn't even hear about it until months after it happened. I read an article in the newspaper about his visit, and in my opinion it wasn't very friendly towards him. It sort of portrayed him as a lunatic athlete who likes growing vegetables, and very much missed the point of who he really was. There is sort of a perception here that anyone who grows vegetables is lower class, and this is the point of view the newspaper took.

This sort of culture clash of not being able to figure out if he was upper or lower class, I think kind of meant he didn't see the right people here. There are lots of people trying to do the same thing he is, but none of them are upper class.

I'm glad he got the money from the fellowship, and what he's doing is great, but in my opinion even in the US he seems a little isolated from the people he's trying to work with. For example, he uses his blog as a speech platform, and doesn't interact at all (or at least much) with his readers. There are few things as boring as a blog where the author doesn't chat with their readers. Maybe if I met him in person I would have a different opinion.

It's a bit like Michael Pollan. As much as I like him and what he is trying to so, he tends to over simplify things, frequently gets boring and is sometimes wrong. I don't know if overall he is doing much to promote the kinds of things the people on this board do. He was credited for convincing the president to start a vegetable garden, but I think others did much more work then him.

I think the same is probably true with Will Allen, that the people behind him probably deserve more credit than he does.

[ottawagardener]

I suspect with writers like Michael Pollen, they are pushed into sounding what the publishers think will be interesting and therefore they lack the subtlety that they may have in a different format or forum, ie, they oversimplify and make grand, sweeping statements. That said, I agree with the idea that Mountains have bases not just summits and the amount of people that are normally at work behind a 'front (wo)man' for an issue is enormous. I also agree that Homegrown Goodness 'rocks' (can I say that - can't think of a plant related verb?)

Interesting point about class and veggie growing. Here in NA, there is a HUGE and GROWING trend in middle class folk to grow their own or at least buy into CSAs etc... In fact, I had someone coming around our neighbourhood soliciting for local farmers - I live in an affluent area of town (no we aren't rich . This heartens me but like many trends this is a redressing of an older movement so to keep momentum, I think it's important to get out there and talk loud about the issues you care about in the hopes that if this trend wanes enough people will be commited to carry on. However, I fear food security, growing, etc... is not an issue to disappear any time soon.

(sorry that was slightly off topic).

[plantsnobin]

Patrick, I think you really got the wrong idea of Will from what it sounds like. He has been doing this for years. He truly is hands on. Yes, he was a pro basketball player back in the day, but he is not a rich person who is only a figurehead. It is interesting about the cultural differences though. Yesterday I was reading Gardenrant, and they were rebutting something written by some idiot who says that inner city gardens are holding back the poor, that they should be taught the 'important' things that will allow them to get good jobs, that they shouldn't be taught to garden because manual labor is what their parents are trying to escape. Everyone really should read that, it is a hoot. I think everyone here sees their garden as a labor of love, and would never look down on 'farm laborers'. But, apparently that is not the case for much of the world. It's kind of funny really. Think of someone like Amy Goldman-it's OK to 'garden' if you are growing 'heirlooms', or maybe even paying someone else to grow your stuff, but maybe if you actually need to grow your own food, you are not in the same league. Michael Pollan is perhaps of the same ilk, buy organic for the rich folks, but might look down his nose at the people who are/have always gardened because they can't afford not to. Speculation on my part of course, but there certainly is a lot of snobbery in the current 'grow your own movement'. I guarantee there would not have been a take-over of SSE 15 years ago. It just wasn't the in thing then.
But about Will, he does a lot of good, and holds workshops all around. You can become a fan on facebook, and he holds periodic workshops about an hour from here as Alan said at Breaking New Ground. There is a voting thing right now that you can see on facebook that is competing for grant money from maybe Whole Foods or something, he does get a lot of money from places like that. Will Allen truly does deserve all the credit he has been getting, for he truly did start it from scratch years ago. It may seem like he is suddenly famous, but I think that is just a matter of timing. He has been plugging away for years, but now everyone is on the local/organic bandwagon. He was vermicomposting before it was cool.
Wow, that rant made me sound like a raving lunatic.