Michelle Cannon of LarryVille Gardens

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Michelle Cannon is the sole owner of LarryVille Gardens, living on her gorgeous 11.5-acre farm in Burlington Wisconsin.  On any given day at the farm, you will see her two dogs running around the fields kicking up dirt behind them.  Throughout the year, she relies heavily on summer and winter farmers markets which are now closed due to COVID.  But she has adjusted her delivery methods and is currently delivering to the Fondy Food Center in Milwaukee and offering pick-up orders at the farm.  The hardest part of all this, she says, is the community that she is unable to interact with.  For her, the people she gets to meet and talk to are one of the most important parts of her farm.   

You can contact Michelle to order produce at www.larryvillegardens.com.  

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County Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde is Optimistic on Milwaukee

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Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde outside of the Milwaukee Public Library.

When we talk about local heroes, Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde comes to the forefront of many people’s minds here in Milwaukee. A member of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors representing District 10, Moore Omokunde has been a figure to look up to for years. In an interview, he talks about his experiences that eventually led him to run for office and what he believes an elected official is meant to do. He has an optimistic outlook for a better Milwaukee but explains that people must organize and know their neighbor in order to make their voices heard. 

How did your background lead you to where you are today?

“I grew up in Midtown on the 1200 block of 25th street,” in the district his mother, Rep. Gwen Moore, once represented in the state assembly.  His father, Rev. Dr. Tolokun Omokunde, was a Presbyterian minister who gave Supervisor Moore Omokunde a strong sense of self identity and an understanding of his African heritage. Moore Omokunde was heavily influenced by his parents, both of whom were very involved in community organizing.  

As an adult, he began working with organizations that service youth in the city, providing them with more opportunities—nonprofits like True Skool, the Boys and Girls Club and Public Allies.  That work stretched into other avenues of community organizing, such as helping the Sherman Park Community Association to establish local block clubs which gave people a way to voice their concerns.

What motivated you to run for office rather than staying in the nonprofit sector?

Moore Omokunde is passionate about his work he did with local organizations, but now as an elected official, he is able to represent his constituents and work to change policies based on their needs, or as he says, “be in the room where it happens.”

Since being in office in 2015, he has reallocated money to create safe zones in neighborhoods which helps prevents violence.  Moore Omokunde worked with neighborhood groups, for example, to transform Tiefenthaler Park to an active community meeting space, preventing crime from occurring.  Last year, he also helped kick off the Milwaukee City-County Joint Taskforce on Climate and Economic Equity, which aims to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, while also minimizing the racial and economic divide. 

What is the best way for everyday people to get involved and have their voices heard?

“It’s important to ask yourself, how well do you know your neighbor?” That’s the first step, explains Moore Omokunde.  Community organizing is as simple as getting to know the people close to you, whether that’s your local block club, residence council, neighborhood association, etc. “At that level, connect with other people who have similar desires as yourself,” then as an organized body, make your concerns known to your local representative. “I think it’s really important to let people know that their elected officials work for them and give people the kind of representation that redirects the power back to themselves,” he says.

More than ever, our local communities need to continue to organize and stay connected. Supreme Moore Omokunde is running for reelection unopposed to represent District 10 on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Thanks to everyone that went out to vote on April 7th in the midst of these challenging times.

Learn more on the Milwaukee County Board website. Read this article on the Shepherd Express, part of the column “Hero of the Week.”

Walnut Way, Antonio Butts Rebuild a Neglected Neighborhood

“In order for the City of Milwaukee to be a place where there’s true economic diversity among all people, the isolation and exclusion [of minorities] has to continue to be addressed,” says Antonio Butts, executive director of Walnut Way. The nonprofit organization, based in Lindsay Heights, is dedicated to supporting the neighborhood’s residents through community engagement, environmental stewardship and economic development. Butts holds a strong belief that the strengthening of a neighborhood happens by harboring the skills of its residents and building from within. As he explains, the funding and support need to come from people who are part of the community, not from external sources.

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Walnut Way was founded 20 years ago, when a group of neighbors came together to talk about the lack of camaraderie in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood compared to the time when they were children. These residents grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, when the area was still known as Bronzeville, a thriving African American neighborhood fueled by a wealth of industrial jobs and ambitious migrants from the South.

But Bronzeville and its booming businesses got torn apart in the late ’50s and early ’60s, when the City of Milwaukee decided to build the I-94 and I-43 freeways right through the middle of the neighborhood; the communities have not been the same since. Businesses and residents were displaced and consequently divided and neglected. That small group of Lindsay Heights neighbors remembered the strong sense of community from their childhood and began gathering groups of residents, reclaiming vacant lots and taking on initiatives.

‘Neighborhoods Need Businesses, Organizations and Institutions’

Motivated to make a difference in the neighborhood he has called home his whole life, Butts became Walnut Way’s executive director three years ago. His professional experience involves both social work in the nonprofit sector and work with social enterprises that use for-profit models; he was specifically drawn to Walnut Way because of the unique opportunity it presented to blend the two.

A program called the “Community Wealth-Building Campaign” is a perfect example. Walnut Way has built relationships with the residents of Lindsay Heights and taken note of all their skills and interests. That information is then used to group people together in an effort to start interest groups and evoke business ideas. “In order to turn neighborhoods around and create real opportunities for residents to have social and economic mobility, neighborhoods need businesses, organizations and institutions,” says Butts. The community gatherings have already brought ideas for new business ventures which Walnut Way will help bring to life. As part of the program, Walnut Way will offer funding, administrative and structural support to these groups.

The success in this organization comes from building spaces of trust as well as seeing the potential in each of the residents. The destruction of the neighborhood in the early ’60s and “lack of investment in areas predominantly populated by African Americans, left [the residents] without an economic base to be able to move forward,” says Butts. Walnut Way has been breaking down those barriers and helping individuals succeed by building trust for 20 years. When individuals are confident in their potential, a neighborhood can start to be rebuilt.

To support the health of the community during the COVID-19 outbreak, Walnut Way is temporarily postponing events at the Walnut Way Center and the Men's Wellness Group at The Innovations and Wellness Commons until further notice.

Learn more at walnutway.org. Read this article on the Shepherd Express, part of the column “Hero of the Week.”

Community Organizing Through Food

David Boucher and Stephanie Shipley are celebrating 14 years of connecting people through food with Amaranth Bakery and Café. The pair always shared a love for community organizing and knew that food has a way of bringing cultures together. In 2000, they bought the rundown building at 3329 W. Lisbon Ave. with the intention of building a public meeting space in a neighborhood that needed more access to public places.

The bakery was founded on an idea that change can happen in a community if people are given a space that allows them to feel comfortable and interact with one another. From the beginning, the café was meant to help ideas grow. That’s why the seating area consists mostly of large tables which organically allow people to start conversations. Movements and local initiatives happen through relationship building, explains Boucher, and “none of this happens without trust.”

As their budding business developed, so did their food and Shipley’s knowledge of baking. “I feel like this place created me as the baker, as the food person,” she says, as someone who never had experience in baking previous to the café. She was first inspired by the large red plant she saw being grown by her neighboring Hmong gardeners. “The amaranth plants that grew in the community gardens were strong, anchored and unwilted,” says Boucher. Shipley’s research of the plant led her to discover the many cultures that have a history of cultivating it. That helped her realize the importance food and crops hold in different ethnicities and religions.

So, she intentionally built the menu to be inclusive and healthy. Even though Shipley is vegetarian, she makes a point to add meat into their hearty vegetable-filled soups because meat is so valued in the culture of the neighborhood. By simply adding meat to her soups, she gets more people to try something they wouldn’t normally eat.

Their menu has adapted over the years because of the people from various cultures that they’ve invited into their café. Boucher and Shipley have made a point to hire people wanting to learn the trade who bring their own perspectives on food. By being willing to take extra time to teach those with less experience, the couple, in return, learns from their workforce. They also support neighborhood businesses and budding entrepreneurs who help develop new products that the couple otherwise wouldn’t have thought of. The support they’ve offered has not only created an open safe space in the café, it’s also built up the surrounding neighborhood. Boucher and Shipley view the world in very different ways, but their goal has always been the same: Empower the people in the neighborhood so they can improve their community as well as their own well-being.

Learn more at facebook.com/amaranthbakerycafe. Read this article on the Shepherd Express, part of the column “Hero of the Week.”