While we were introduced to the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT) through our readings last week, we were extremely lucky to meet Greg and Shashawnda from SBCLT. They shared their first-hand experiences leading up to the creation of SBCLT as well as their ongoing efforts in creating a zero-waste Baltimore and providing permanent affordable housing.
What struck me was how much their movement has grown since being high school students. Their dedication and fight towards environmental justice was inspiring and instilled a sense of hope within me as I’m sure it did for many others. I believe we as a group are incredibly fortunate to not only learn from, but also work alongside them throughout the semester/year. I hope that we can put all our diverse skills and strengths together to help create change and assist the SBCLT in any way that we can.
As we begin our path of learning more about the zero-waste movement in Baltimore, we could achieve as many of the 6 tasks we “randomly” chose for ourselves to supplement our readings. We were given wallets made of recycled paper material and we filled them with 6 activities to complete. As for me, I have only been successful in achieving one, though I am hopeful to address all 6.
After our class discussion, we walked to Sisson (a location part of the Food Scrap Drop-Off Pilot Program). We found its composing facility to be small, much smaller than expected. However, it needs to start from somewhere and I’m optimistic it can grow. Now that we are aware of this location as well as the others, hopefully we can spread the word and have these composting bins used and hopefully overflowed, so that this composting facility and pilot program can scale up.
Once we re-grouped after our site visit, we planned to start our trainings held by Shashawnda and Greg next week. Others tasks next week may include: 1) developing teams, 2) scheduling lab or meeting times that work best for the class 3) engaging in field training. I’m excited to work with all of you this semester/year and cannot see what we as a group will achieve!
