Will Allen, author of “The Good Food Revolution” speaks at 7 p.m. Oct. 26, in Ritsche Auditorium.
Allen is the author of “The Good Food Revolution,” which traces the journey he took from professional basketball player and marketing executive to preeminent urban farmer in inner-city Milwaukee and founder of the internationally-recognized urban agriculture organization Growing Power.
Admission to the lecture is $10 for the general public, free with a valid St. Cloud State ID. Tickets are available at scsutickets.com. Parking is $3 for the evening in the 4th Avenue Parking Ramp, 516 Fourth Ave. S., St. Cloud.
Allen is the son of South Carolina sharecroppers who moved to Maryland to start a new life. Allen grew up to be the first African-American man to play basketball for the University of Miami and graduated with a degree in education.
He played professionally in Belgium where he began gardening for himself and his teammates in the local fashion. This ignited his own passion for sustainable farming and after retiring from basketball and his marketing career, Allen returned to farming and purchased the last urban plot zoned agriculturally in Milwaukee where he founded Growing Power.
Allen has been awarded a Ford Foundation leadership grant, a MacArthur Genius Grant and been named a Food Revolutionary on the Rodale 100.
The event is part of St. Cloud State University’s Common Reading Program, which brings together first-year St. Cloud State students through reading a book together before arriving on campus and participating in programming and classroom activities surrounding the book during their first year on campus.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Common Reading Program and the University Program Board.
