Winchester Academy to host Will Allen
Will Allen will present “Growing Power and the Good Food Revolution” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 11, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Waupaca.
Hosted by Winchester Academy, the program is free and open to the public.
Allen is a Milwaukee-based urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production and delivery of healthy foods to urban populations. The son of a sharecropper, Allen is a former professional basketball player who is recognized as a national leader in urban agriculture and food policy.
Using his retirement package to purchase a plot of inner-city land with greenhouses, he established and functions as the CEO of Growing Power, an urban farm and non-profit organization.
Growing Power has grown since its inception in 1993, to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach, and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.
Allen will tell the story of how Growing Power came to be and of his personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way the nation eats.
Allen said. “If people can grow safe, healthy, affordable food, if they have access to land and clean water, this is transformative on every level in a community,” Allen said. “We cannot have healthy communities without a healthy food system.”
In 2010, Time magazine named Will Allen one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People, and he was invited to the White House to join Michelle Obama in launching “Let’s Move!” – her signature program to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic in America.
In 2012, he received the NEA Security Benefit Corporation Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education for his work with children, teachers, and schools.
Cookies and coffee will be served at 6 p.m. and the program begins promptly at 6:30.
Winchester Academy is funded through sponsors and tax-deductible donations. Allen’s program is sponsored by Revs. Mary and Jim Trainor.
For more information about Winchester Academy, check winchesteracademywaupaca.org, follow on Facebook, or contact Executive Director Ann Buerger Linden at 715-258-2927 or [email protected].