The 2018-19 EWU Common Read will be…. The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen.
Copies of the book are available:
- For 1-week checkout at the JFK Library Circulation Desk. Check availability in the EWU Library Catalog.
- The University College office has copies for more indefinite checkout, Showalter 117.
The Good Food Revolution is a memoir by Will Allen, the 2008 MacArthur Genius Award winner who in 1993 walked away from corporate sales to become an urban farmer in Milwaukee. Why? Because he was driven by the desire to farm, but more importantly the desire to bring real, healthy food to the “food desert” low-income areas of Milwaukee. The book takes us through his life: the son of sharecroppers from South Carolina who grew up in 1950s-60’s Maryland and excelled at basketball. He was a state champion and earned a scholarship to University of Miami – the first African-American to play basketball there. He played professional, though not NBA, including several seasons in Belgium. After retiring from basketball, he worked for corporate America (KFC, then Proctor & Gamble).
But throughout his life, he was drawn to farming. His parents farmed in the South, and the kitchen gardens of his childhood were a necessity. But he found that he was drawn to gardening and raising food, even while playing basketball in Belgium. Back in Milwaukee, when he drove by a set of dilapidated greenhouses for sale, the draw became an obsession. The book chronicles his trials and tribulations in turning the greenhouses into the nonprofit Growing Power*, the multifaceted venture that not only grew affordable food in the city, but held workshops for the community and community organizers about gardening, composting, and cooking healthy meals.
Issues/Themes
The book discusses a wide variety of issues that you could use in your classes:
- Urban farming
- Community gardens
- Economics of farming
- Sustainability as it relates to healthy food
- Healthy food and inner cities
- Building and sustaining a nonprofit
- Grit and determination in overcoming obstacles
- African American history and agriculture
- Segregation/desegregation & African American life in the 1960s/70s (Allen married a white woman in 1969)
- Basketball in the 1960s/1970s
Tour Growing Power’s Operation
- For a 2-minute taste of what his operation looks like, see: https://vimeo.com/15997939
- For a longer tour, see the 2009 documentary Fresh via Kanopy Streaming Videos https://ewu.kanopy.com/video/fresh. The greenhouse tour starts around :38.
*Note: Growing Power has recently had some severe setbacks. Allen retired in November 2017, and Growing Power in Milwaukee ceased operations this year because of debts. In May 2018, Will Allen started his main operation back up, under the name Will’s Roadside Farms and Markets. (See https://www.facebook.com/Willsroadsidefarmsandmarkets/.) The book is a joy to read because it is an uplifting story about building a nonprofit that makes a difference in people’s lives. But the recent events add complexity to teaching the book to students – the difficulty in financially sustaining sustainability initiatives…
For more information on the setbacks, see:
- Hauer, Sarah. “Growing Power Founder Will Allen to Retire as Nonprofit’s Debts Mount.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 20 Nov. 2017, www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2017/11/20/growing-power-founder-allen-retire-nonprofits-debts-mount/881139001/.
- Satterfield, Stephen. “Behind the Rise and Fall of Growing Power.” Civil Eats, 13 March 2018, civileats.com/2018/03/13/behind-the-rise-and-fall-of-growing-power/.
- Sussman, Mary. “Will Allen Returns to His Roots.” Milwaukee Shepherd Express, 12 June 2018, shepherdexpress.com/news/features/will-allen-returns-to-his-roots/#/questions/.
