Nothing is Ordinary about this store
On 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive, Milwaukee, WI is what seems like an ordinary grocery store, and upon entering it seem again like an ordinary store selling vegetables and other products. Then once you take a look behind the scenes, a different magical scene appears. This store not only sells the produce they make it from scratch.
Starting with the soil, everyone remembers making compost sometime in their life throwing trash into a bucket to make “food” to give the plants, at Growing Power they also make their soil/compost. There are many types of soils that they make, but all of them are friendly to the environment and use up some type of waste product, one of those soils is called Microbiological Compost. This compost is made out of mainly worm castings ( worm manure)and worms to produce the manure. They put the worms in a huge bin with some of the mature compost and the worms eat away and leave their manure behind. This type of compost actually makes the plants grow faster. Another genius idea that Growing Power, uses for their soil is coir. Coir is the fibers from the outside of the coconut. They are unusable to most and usually considered waste, so these fibers are shipped in blocks for Growing Power. Using coir is very environmental friendly, not only because the fibers won’t go in trash, but the plants grow faster and actually break down the fibers.
Being environment friendly is a main goal for Growing Power, and this is apparent throughout the whole store. There are solar panels on top of the greenhouse, which provide most of the electricity. A representative of Growing Power said “Not only does the solar panels reduce our energy bill, but we also get tax credits for going green.”
For Will Allen, the creator of Growing Power, is amazing but for him to share it the way he has is better. This knowledge of agriculture has spread to many youth across Milwaukee and continues to expand with the Milwaukee Youth Corps program. This program allows youth to come in and help out with the raising of the plants, and livestock on the farm. Just remember whenever someone tells you that one person doesn’t make a difference, they are completely wrong, give them the example of Will Allen, he is making sustainable agriculture and being environmental friendly at the same time.
