Media Contact: Susie Falk, 414.232.2562
34-Acre Farm Will Grow Food for Wisconsin Students and Their Families
Jackson, Wis., Aug. 29, 2011 – A 34-acre tract of land in Jackson, WI, will give Southeastern Wisconsin food lovers a chance to enjoy the healthy flavors of locally grown produce when dining at nearby eateries and in local public schools, thanks to a partnership between Growing Power, Inc. of Milwaukee and Sysco Eastern Wisconsin.
In partnership with Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power, Sysco recently launched a local cooperative farming project. It is donating the use of 34 acres adjacent to its Jackson distribution center on Mill Road to Growing Power. This will allow Growing Power to harvest carrots, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot pepper, zucchini and yellow squash in the project’s first year.
Additionally, Sysco and Growing Power are working with local public schools to allow children to participate in the cultivating of fresh, healthy food options within their local communities. The first year’s crop has been planted and will be harvested in throughout the 2011 growing season. Sysco and Growing Power currently participate in the Milwaukee Public Schools Initiative, which has helped serve more than 25,000 MPS students with locally grown food. The Jackson farm program aims to triple the number of MPS students served to 75,000.
“This is a wonderful beginning to a healthy partnership that will improve the nutritional content of our schools’ meals, support local agriculture, and teach our youth about healthy eating,” said Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and nationally recognized urban agriculture leader. “It’s important that all stakeholders, especially food distributors such as Sysco, are at the good food revolution table to develop a more integrated, local, sustainable food system.”
Cathy Henry, president of Sysco Eastern Wisconsin, said, “This opportunity to partner with such a reputable organization as Growing Power is an excellent way to develop a source of high-quality local produce at a lower cost – and to put that food on our customers’ tables within 24 hours of its availability. It’s also a meaningful way to support our local economy, to contribute to managing our environmental impact on the community and to offer our local schoolchildren the chance to become involved in local farming activities.”
About Sysco
Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Its family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. The company operates 180 distribution facilities serving approximately 400,000 customers. For the fiscal year 2010 that ended July 3, 2010 the company generated more than $37 billion in sales. For more information about Sysco, visit the company’s Internet home page at http://www.sysco.com.
About Growing Power
Growing Power was started in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1993 by Will Allen, a 2008 winner of a MacArthur “Genius Award” who has long worked to produce and deliver healthy food to low-income communities. It is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping 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.
About Will Allen
Will Allen, son of a sharecropper, former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader, and now farmer, has become recognized as among the preeminent thinkers of our time on agriculture and food policy. The founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Allen is widely considered the leading authority in the expanding field of urban agriculture. At Growing Power and in community food projects across the nation and around the world, Allen promotes the belief that all people, regardless of their economic circumstances, should have access to fresh, safe, affordable and nutritious foods at all times. Using methods he has developed over a lifetime, Allen trains community members to become community farmers, assuring them a secure source of good food without regard to political or economic forces. Mr Allen has spoken at the White House with First Lady Michelle Obama on issues affecting American youth and the risk of obesity and in 2010 was recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.
