From a prospie to a first year.....

I got an email from an Open House visitor for an unnamed MUP who  urban gardening:

The information to pass along is for the 1st year fellow passionate about urban gardening in Peoria.   ".....two people and programs that may be good models if he doesn't already know about them: Ekklesia Acres in Cloverdale/VA, Don Charles, and closer to home and more well known, Will Allen in Milwuakee.  I pasted part of a newspaper artcle about Allen below."

Will Allen, Milwaukee’s urban farming pioneer. . . . is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, a nonprofit farm in the middle of Milwaukee that raises fresh produce for underserved populations with high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Allen, winner of a $500,000 “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, [for] his innovative approach to growing healthy food for urban populations, and training farmers to raise fresh produce and fish in cities.
Coincidentally, Obama gave his election night victory speech within a stone’s throw of one of Growing Power’s most visible projects in Chicago’s historic Grant Park – a 20,000-square-foot “urban farm” adjacent to Buckingham Fountain with over 150 varieties of heirloom vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. The garden was trampled by celebrants, but not beyond repair, Allen said.
Would he accept a job in Washington with the Department of Agriculture?
“My name has been out there, but I’m not interested,” Allen said. “I like working in communities, and with infrastructure development. I want to be a voice, but I’ve gotta touch the soil, too.”