Posted on September 11, 2012

Kellogg Foundation Awards $5 Million to Growing Power

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, has announced a five-year, $5 million grant to Growing Power to expand the Milwaukee-based organization's urban agriculture program to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color across the country.

Announced at the biennial National-International Urban and Small Farm Conference, the grant will be used to help communities develop urban farm centers that produce locally grown food, train new farmers, and provide healthy produce for children and families in Detroit, New Orleans, Taos (New Mexico), and the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi. "Growing Power will help these local community food centers build organizational strength through strategic planning, leadership development, infrastructural development, financial sustainability guidance, anti-racism education, and promoting networking opportunities," said the organization's CEO, Will Allen.

Building on the success of Growing Power's own Community Food Center and production farms, which support fifteen hoop houses for year-round production of plants and vegetables, more than a hundred thousand fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, honeybees, and worms in a space no larger than a small supermarket, each food center will be tailored to fit local needs.

"One of the Kellogg Foundation's core beliefs is that all people — particularly vulnerable children — deserve access to good food," said Kellogg Foundation vice president for program strategy Gail C. Christopher. "This investment will develop and support leaders and their work in communities to help more families and communities get the healthy and good food they need to be healthier and thrive."