Will Allen to Take Stage with First Lady Michelle Obama
Milwaukee – Feb. 8, 2010 – Growing Power founder and CEO Will Allen will be one of three featured speakers sharing the podium Tuesday with First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House as she officially announces her national initiative to fight childhood obesity.
The campaign, first broached publicly last month in the First Lady’s keynote speech to the National Council of Mayors and also mentioned in President Obama’s State of the Union address, becomes official with Tuesday’s event, which begins at 11:30 a.m. EDT (10:30 CDT). Sportscaster and former New York Giants running back Kiki Barber will introduce the speakers.
Allen, whose Growing Power urban farm and food systems training center operates in an underserved area of Milwaukee, plans to speak about the need to create new infrastructure to grow food in cities and new networks to channel food from diversified local farms into communities to improve access to fresh foods.
“We need to look at this as a critical challenge from birth, even from before birth,” Allen said. “From pre-natal nutrition to what children are being fed in daycare centers, to kindergarten and all through the grades, we have to ask ourselves why we are settling for poor food for our children. We have to institutionalize good food in our schools, and not only in the cafeteria but in our teaching every day.
“We also need to be able to grow food year-round where it’s needed, despite the climate, the way we are doing it here at Growing Power in Milwaukee. We need to scale up these efforts, growing good soil, growing good food, growing the relationships necessary to distribute and deliver this food to people.”
