Milwaukee Public Schools Division of School Nutrition recently partnered with Growing Power to provide farm-fresh produce for MPS students throughout the school year.
The Milwaukee Recreation Department recently filmed a video describing the program and illustrating students' responses to this innovative concept.
Check it out!
This isn't the first time that Growing Power has joined forces with MPS. In 2008, the program paired up with Bradley Technical High School to build and urban agricultural training space atop a "green" garage in the Riverwest neighborhood in Milwaukee. Plans for the garage included a year-round roof-top garden. Solar panels on a rooftop shed were planned to provide energy for heating water and soil for winter food production in the rooftop hoop-houses.
Showing posts with label REAL food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label REAL food. Show all posts
Wednesday
True Growing Power: Will Allen and the Good-Food Movement
I absolutely LOVE it that Will Allen and Growing Power made it to the New York Times Magazine last week. And it was no "small potatoes" article either.
Now, this isn't the first time that Will Allen has made the headlines. Last October, I wrote about Growing Power as part of my Blog Action Day article. Allen had just received a $500,000 MacArthur Fellow award to support his work. And the New York Times published an article about his accomplishments. But, judging from the content of the July article, people are really starting to take notice.
If you're not familiar with Growing Power, I'd encourage you to do some reading. And check out their Web site. This humble non-profit organization works 24/7 with the mission of providing equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. GP is part of what's been called the "good-food movement." And their vision has helped countless people across the country to establish systems of growing, marketing, and distributing food in sustainable ways.
Their farm produces produce which is grown and distributed locally ALL YEAR LONG (which means I can buy locally grown lettuce and sprouts even on the coldest February days!). If that's not exciting enough, Growing Power also manages programs like the Market Basket Program, which works similarly to a CSA to supply (affordable) sustainable produce year-round to interested families. They even operate a subset of the program at Marquette University -- ensuring that interested college students can benefit from fresh produce, even while living in college apartments and dorms.
Growing Power has to be, hands down, one of my favorite local organizations. Not only because Will Allen and his staff produce such amazing produce (they do!), but also because they do it with such vigor and incredible passion. These are people who REALLY care about what they're doing. And it shows.
Growing Power isn't about real food for rich people. It's about real food for ALL people. And isn't that the point?
Thankfully, we're not the only ones who are excited. Read what Food Renegade has to say about this article. And check out all the great posts at Real Food Wednesday.
Now, this isn't the first time that Will Allen has made the headlines. Last October, I wrote about Growing Power as part of my Blog Action Day article. Allen had just received a $500,000 MacArthur Fellow award to support his work. And the New York Times published an article about his accomplishments. But, judging from the content of the July article, people are really starting to take notice.
If you're not familiar with Growing Power, I'd encourage you to do some reading. And check out their Web site. This humble non-profit organization works 24/7 with the mission of providing equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. GP is part of what's been called the "good-food movement." And their vision has helped countless people across the country to establish systems of growing, marketing, and distributing food in sustainable ways.
Their farm produces produce which is grown and distributed locally ALL YEAR LONG (which means I can buy locally grown lettuce and sprouts even on the coldest February days!). If that's not exciting enough, Growing Power also manages programs like the Market Basket Program, which works similarly to a CSA to supply (affordable) sustainable produce year-round to interested families. They even operate a subset of the program at Marquette University -- ensuring that interested college students can benefit from fresh produce, even while living in college apartments and dorms.
Growing Power has to be, hands down, one of my favorite local organizations. Not only because Will Allen and his staff produce such amazing produce (they do!), but also because they do it with such vigor and incredible passion. These are people who REALLY care about what they're doing. And it shows.
Allen predicts that because of high unemployment and the recent food scares, 10 million people will plant gardens for the first time this year. But two million of them will eventually drop out, he said, when the potato bugs arrive or the rain doesn’t cooperate. Still, he was sanguine. “The experience will introduce those folks to what a tomato really tastes like, so next time they’ll buy one at their greenmarket. And when we talk about farm-worker rights, we’ll have more advocates for them.” (excerpted from NYTM article)
Growing Power isn't about real food for rich people. It's about real food for ALL people. And isn't that the point?
Thankfully, we're not the only ones who are excited. Read what Food Renegade has to say about this article. And check out all the great posts at Real Food Wednesday.
Tuesday
Meet My Hero: Alice Waters
It's about time someone spoke up in the mainstream about the importance of eating real food. And leave it to my hero, Alice Waters, to do the talking.
Watch CBS Videos Online
It's funny. So much of the "real food" movement seems intuitive to me. It's getting back to our roots. Remembering what our grandparents and great-grandparents ate. Understanding that those things were far superior (nutritionally, environmentally) to the prepared foods we're all too accustomed to eating in this day and age. We're certainly NOT perfect. But, I like the fact that we're trying to get back to basics. And I really do think it makes a difference.
It does make me sad to recognize that so many people feel that eating real food is both time-consuming and expensive. In my experience, it doesn't have to be either of those things. In fact, letting go of the packaged, processed, fake foods is pretty liberating.
My opinion: it's one of the best things we can do for ourselves and our world.
What do you think?
Watch CBS Videos Online
It's funny. So much of the "real food" movement seems intuitive to me. It's getting back to our roots. Remembering what our grandparents and great-grandparents ate. Understanding that those things were far superior (nutritionally, environmentally) to the prepared foods we're all too accustomed to eating in this day and age. We're certainly NOT perfect. But, I like the fact that we're trying to get back to basics. And I really do think it makes a difference.
It does make me sad to recognize that so many people feel that eating real food is both time-consuming and expensive. In my experience, it doesn't have to be either of those things. In fact, letting go of the packaged, processed, fake foods is pretty liberating.
My opinion: it's one of the best things we can do for ourselves and our world.
What do you think?
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