Will Allen

Will Allen (born February 8, 1949) is an American urban farmer based in Milwaukee and a retired professional basketball player.

Early life and education Will Allen was a high school state champion in basketball at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland He was the first African-American to play basketball for the University of Miami. He also played professionally in Belgium.

Allen retired from basketball in 1977, when he was 28.

Finishing a career in marketing, Allen left a job at Procter & Gamble in 1993 and purchased a derelict plant nursery that was in foreclosure, located on the north side of Milwaukee.

Allen became the director of Growing Power, an urban farming project in Milwaukee, with a 40-acre farm west of Milwaukee in the town of Merton and an offshoot project in Chicago run by Allen's daughter, Erika. Allen remains active on the site in north Milwaukee through his company Will Allen Farms, LLC.

In 2005, Allen was awarded a Ford Foundation leadership grant on behalf of his urban farming work. In 2009, the Kellogg Foundation gave Allen a grant to create jobs in urban agriculture.

Will Allen appears in the documentary film, Fresh. The film refers to Allen as "one of the most influential leaders of the food security and urban farming movement."

Will Allen is the co-author, with Charles Wilson, of the book The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities, published by Gotham Books, a member of Penguin Group, USA. The book was nominated for a 2013 NAACP Image Award in the category of biography/autobiography. Allen is also the subject of 2014's Farmer Will Allen & the Growing Table, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Eric-Shabazz Larkin.

On May 20, 2012, Allen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Agriculture degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He also delivered the commencement address for the graduation ceremony held on that day.