Will Allen, the author of “The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities”, spoke in McGarvey Commons on Wednesday. His autobiography has been used in the classroom at many different colleges, including Penn State Behrend. Allen is a former basketball player and is now the CEO of the nonprofit he cofounded, Growing Power. Growing Power, founded in 1993, helps provide people with healthy, high-quality, and safe food who otherwise would not have access to it, according to Growing Power’s website.

 

Before Allen was an urban farmer, he was a basketball player. He was one of the first black athletes to integrate the University of Miami. After college, he played professional basketball in the U.S. and Belgium. Eventually, Allen retired from basketball and started a career in business. On the side he farmed as his hobby, but he wanted to make it his career.

 

Growing Power is not only an urban farm, but it is also a place where people can be educated about urban farming, including growing crops, composting, aquaponics, and vermiculture. Aquaponics involves growing fish and plants in the same system and using the waste from the fish to feed the plants, and the plants filter the water for the fish. Vermiculture is using worms as livestock, specifically to decompose food waste. Growing Power takes much of the food produced into communities where there isn’t access to healthy food.

 

“One of the benefits is improving the health of the community because most communities all over the nation, especially lower income communities, have really poor access to food, so being able to grow a significant amount of food changes the dynamics of their community in terms of their health.” Allen said in an interview. “But the other piece we try to add to that is the educational piece around why should you eat good food. We have a lot of evidence that shows that people who eat good food live longer. There are studies that now show that if you drive through any major city, you’ll find a 20-year difference in life expectancy.”

 

Allen is proud of the work he has done to help youth in his community. Growing Power has a program that starts kids at age eight. As long as they stay in the program until they graduate high school, Growing Power helps them with college.

 

“Some of our young people would not have gone to college if they were not connected to our program,” Allen said. The program focuses not only on growing food, but also on growing people. Those involved learn about agriculture while developing leadership skills and other life skills, such as responsibility.

 

Through his work at Growing Power, Allen has become recognized as an expert in urban farming. The Behrend community was eager to welcome him to campus on Wednesday. During his speech, he shared the story of how he bought his farm one day very spontaneously, which eventually became the site for Growing Power. One day as he was working outside, a group of local school kids gathered and greeted him. By welcoming the kids onto his farm, Allen’s connection to the community started to blossom. As his operation grew, so did his connection to the community surrounding him. During his presentation, Allen explained that everything runs smoother when you have a connection to the community.

 

As the evening unfolded, Allen's presentation explained the difference his non-profit makes and also the hard work and dedication it takes to keep it running. He made it clear that to pursue this line of work requires more than just interest, but a true unfaltering passion. It requires hard, physical work that takes no vacation, and someone who will continue doing the work even once the initial sparkle of the job has worn off.

 

After his presentation, Allen took questions from the audience. He answered questions about how much it costs to build a hoop house, how many fit on an acre, and more. Allen wrapped up his presentation by urging people to make a change specifically by introducing kids introduced to environmentally safe initiatives while they are still young.

 

At the end of his autobiography, Allen painted a picture of what he hopes the future holds. A future with nutritious food and a community that works together to produce it. A future with humans living in balance with the environment. With the help of Allen, his team at Growing Power, and others that are doing similar work, this dream is becoming a reality.