Growing Power on Milwaukee Renaissance

5500 W. Silver Spring Dr.
Milwaukee WI 53218
Phone: (414) 527–1546
Fax: (414) 527–1908
www.growingpower.org

Board of Directors
Jerome Kaufman, President
Tracey Carey,
Vice President
Matthew L. Cain, Secretary
Welford Sanders, Treasurer
Don Austin
Enrique Breceda
James Godsil
Mark Heffernan
Robert Krug
Don Richards
Ian Rowlandson

Milwaukee Staff

Will Allen
Director

Karen Parker
Community Food Center Manager

Katie Kaluzynski
Greenhouse/Education Manager

Tamara Treviranus
Office Manager

Bill Hanson
Accountant

Sally Leiser
Volunteer Coordinator

Amy Schuster
Marketing Manager

Rick Mueller
Facility Program Assistant

Loretta Mays
Administrative Assistant

Elana Cohen
Education/market basket Assistant

Chicago Staff

Erika Allen
Development Director and Chicago Projects Manager

Anna Viertel
Youth and Market Basket program assistant

Bill Shores
Chicago Program assistant

Dear Friends:

2005 has been filled with many challenges – on a local, national, and international level. Unrest around the world and unprecedented weather conditions have had a dramatic impact on all of our lives. Small and midsize farmers/producers have been especially affected by these events: severe weather conditions, escalating transportation costs, and reductions in funding for small and midsize producers have resulted in tremendous stress for producers who are already living on the edge of profitability.

Never has there been a time so ripe for the lessons learned and now taught by Growing Power, Inc.. Our model of sustainable, Community Food Centers is now being replicated around the country and in Canada. The production systems we have developed are environmentally sustainable, inexpensive to create and maintain, and adaptable to any growing environment. This year we have expanded our systems to include developing demonstrations in anaerobic digestion and bio-diesel production. We are deeply committed to recycling strategies that divert waste from landfills, recycle this waste into usable energy – for growing food, heating our facility, and fueling our vehicles, and, in the end, bring healthy food to our local community.

We are actively working to increase the health of our community by teaching neighborhood residents how to grow, harvest, and prepare healthy food and by bringing inexpensive, healthy food to low-income neighborhoods through our Farm City Market Basket Program (FCMB). A new initiative to secure sponsors for the FCMB program will bring even greater access to this program on the part of many more low-income community residents.

And, we continue to focus our attention on the youth of our community, for we believe that by involving youth in sustainable food system projects, we assist them in becoming healthy, positive adult citizens of our community. We provide them with a positive alternative to unhealthy and dangerous activities that have resulted in far too many deaths of these our most vulnerable citizens. Youth programming includes our year-round Youth Corps program, a new initiative focusing on young women, our partnerships with local schools wherein students come to the Growing Power Community Food Center to participate in hand-on learning activities within our demonstration modules, and tours for schools and youth serving agencies.

We continue to enjoy partnerships with many individuals and groups, i.e., individual volunteers, local businesses, schools, universities, farmers, community-based organizations, youth-serving agencies, and funders. All are important to our work and must be around the table to make community-food systems work.

We look forward to 2006 and many new initiatives both here in Milwaukee and around the country. We look forward to your partnership in making these initiatives a reality. Please consider a financial contribution to Growing Power and assist us in creating sustainable, locally-based food systems that bring healthy food to ALL residents.

Thank you for your consideration.

Will Allen, Director

Growing Power Staff and Board of Directors