Will Allen, a Milwaukee farmer, is vermicomposting right in the heart of urban Milwaukee. Allen is co-director of Growing Power, a non-profit organization and land trust dedicated to supporting local food systems. In addition to successfully vermicomposting vegetative waste from his greenhouse, Allen recently expanded his operation to include produce trimmings from Sendik’s Food Market, a local grocery store known for its fresh, high-quality produce.

Since March 2000, Allen has regularly collected food prep scraps from Sendik’s. To separate the scraps, staff replaced the store’s 55-gallon trash bins with 22-gallon food storage bins, keeping one garbage bin nearby for non-compostable items. The bins are stacked on a pallet and stored near the loading dock to be picked up by Allen the following morning.

Allen has designated one of his four greenhouses strictly for vermicomposting with a total of twenty five 4’x2’x2’ wooden bins. Inner-city youth help maintain and care for the worms, harvesting the castings and selling them at local farmers markets.

Allen and his crew must be careful not to overload the vermicomposting system, potentially harming the worms with the heat generated by the composting process. Excess food scraps are either added to two long compost piles (windrows) behind the greenhouses or transported to Allen’s farm located about thirty minutes south of his Milwaukee market.

Challenges include in-store storage space for the bins and incorporating hauling time into Allen’s schedule. However, if these hurdles can be overcome, both parties would like to see the program continue and expand, possibly including seven days of collection

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Statistics

Currently Allen collects scraps from Sendik’s three days a week - an average of 6,000 pounds per month.

Contact
Will Allen, Growing Power, 414-527-1908 Tommy Balistreri, Sendik’s Food Market, 414-962-9525