WHEN: Sept. 8, 2012, 11:30 a.m. CDT
WHERE: Wisconsin Exposition Center
Wisconsin State Fair Grounds
8200 W. Greenfield Ave., Milwaukee, Wis.
WHO:
* Will Allen, farmer, founder and CEO of Growing Power (Milwaukee)
* Leana Nakielski, Development Manager, Growing Power (Milwaukee)
* Dr. Gail Christopher, vice president—program strategy, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Battle Creek, Mich.)
* Malik Yakini, chairman, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
* Nat Turner, founder, Our School at Blair Grocery (New Orleans)
* Dr. Barry Colley, CEO, Seven Harvest (Forrest City, Ark.)
* Dorothy Grady-Scarbrough, director, Mississippians Engaged in Greener Agriculture (Shelby, Miss.)
* Pati Martinson and Terrie Bad Hand, co-directors, Taos County Economic Development Corporation (Taos, N.M.)
WHAT: A lively discussion of the impact on towns and cities of new Community Food Centers, where local leaders are being trained to produce food right in their own backyards. With help from Milwaukee’s Growing Power, Community Food Centers across the country are producing crops on site, training budding farmers with hands-on experience, introducing young people to food production and providing healthy, fresh food for vulnerable families.
BACKGROUND: Growing Power was started in Milwaukee in 1993 by Will Allen, a MacArthur “Genius Award” winner who has long worked to produce and deliver healthy food to low-income communities. Growing Power recently received a $5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to partner with communities across the country in developing local Community Food Centers. Growing Power’s own Community Food Center in Milwaukee is an urban farm housing 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits and bees in a space no larger than a small supermarket.
This press event is part of Growing Power’s Sept. 7–9 Urban and Small Farm Conference, which will feature 3,000 participants from across the globe, including farmers, chefs, urban planners, biologists, policymakers and many others.
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About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit http://www.wkkf.org.
Contacts:
Leana Nakielski, Growing Power
262.439.6147, leana.growingpower@gmail.com
Rebecca Noricks, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
269.969.2079, rebecca.noricks@wkkf.org
