Growing Power not only grows food, but it produces all the soil it uses in food production, composting more than 22 million pounds of food waste collected from breweries, coffee companies and corporations such as Walmart every year. The organization, which operates as a nonprofit, provides outreach, technical assistance and on-the-ground training for thousands of volunteers, workshop participants and community members. Having started as a youth service organization that worked with kids from the juvenile justice system, it now employs more than 100 people, many of whom have a history of incarceration, and is growing, with plans this year to build a five-story vertical garden, the first of its kind in the world. The organization sells fresh food to local high-end restaurants, public schools and farm stands in areas designated "food deserts" and "food swamps," and has thus contributed to food security in the cities where it operates?Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago, primarily.
- posted
12 years ago