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Will Allen Highlight
How do you have enough energy to work 17 hours every day, seven days a week? You have to be passionate. You have to reach that point of passion where it doesn't matter. Hours? You don't count hours-they just fly by.
About Will
- He remembers two transformative moments in his life: the first is when he first touched a basketball.
- Growing up on a farm, all he ever wanted to do as a child was to get out; he saw basketball as his escape route.
- Luckily, he was good at the sport; when he graduated from high school, he had over one hundred scholarship offers.
- While he was playing in the American Basketball Association, one of his teammates invited him to help his family harvest potatoes on their farm.
- That became the second major transformative moment in Will's life: he knew he wanted to go back to farming.
- In 1993, he founded Growing Power, a nonprofit that starts local food systems in urban communities to improve job growth and public health.
- In 2008, he was awarded an esteemed MacArthur "Genius Grant" for his work; in 2010, he was one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in America."
- He was inspired by his mother, who used her limited disposable income to feed their family and friends; he extols the power of good food.
