ThisWeekinWorcester.com is partnering with Jessica Hopkins at The Faces of Worcester, to bring our readers special profiles each week and to share the wonderful work at TheFacesofWorcester.com.
To nominate someone you know for the Faces of Worcester, click here.
The following is an excerpt from Hopkins’ interview with Charles Luster, founder and executive Director of 2gether We Eat.
My name is Charles Luster. I am originally from Flint, Michigan and moved to Worcester in 1989. I have had several jobs: retired Verizon employee, former assistant basketball coach at Becker College and former head coach of Quinsigamond Community College men’s basketball. I have been an entrepreneur in the city for several years owning Allure Hair Design and Crescent Café. I am also responsible for the renaming of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and as of recent, the founder and executive Director of 2gether We Eat, a youth and intergenerational hydroponic farming program in Worcester County. I am the founder of The UnCommonwealth Group, where we just had our first black music festival in Worcester on June 24, 2022
Please tell us about your current career and what you love most about what you do?
I am the executive Director of 2gether We Eat, but what I love the most about my job is teaching people an alternative way of growing food from daycare centers to senior centers.
What is your favorite restaurant in Worcester, and what is your favorite dish?
Addie Lee’s and Dawu Cafe- collard greens and fish.
Who is the most interesting person you’ve ever met?
Dick Gregory
If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
Africa, so that I could take our program 2gether We Eat to a different continent and grow food and feed millions of people by using our method.
What is your go to band when you can’t decide what to listen to?
I don’t have a go to band because I love all music.
What is your best advice?
Do everything you can, because you only get one shot of this thing called life.
