The Greater Des Moines Community Foundation is announcing its largest grant in history today, a $250,000 bequest for the World Food Prize Foundation’s restoration of the former downtown public library. The leadership funding will be used to create Public Gardens for the anticipated Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. The $250,000 leadership funding is the largest single grant ever made by the Community Foundation grantmaking committee.

“The generous support of the Community Foundation will help transform what is now a parking lot into a oasis of green in the heart of a city,” former ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said in a release. “We are honored that the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation shares our vision that Public Gardens will be an asset to the community.”

The Public Gardens will showcase a wall that will serve as a piece of public art, and fountains will be in the center of the wall. A world map will be inlaid at the front of the water element. “This leadership grant will fund an inlaid map of the world – a signature element of the Public Gardens that we believe showcases how hosting the World Food Prize puts Central Iowa on the map,” said Allison Fleming, Community Foundation Grantmaking Committee chair, in a release.

The Hall of Laureates is scheduled for completion in 2010 and will serve as a museum of agricultural achievements as well as an educational facility that features interactive displays on hunger and global food security.