In this month's community spotlight, we're celebrating Brenda Sanders, a local Black activist and co-founder of Vegan Soulfest, a two-day annual music and vegan food festival. Brenda Sanders is a vegan food justice advocate dedicated to promoting sustainable lifestyles across Baltimore City. Sanders grew up in Baltimore housing projects with no grocery stores nearby and she and her family often lacked access to healthy foods. When Sanders became vegan later in life, she realized that she could share what she knew about healthy eating with her Baltimore community. Sanders is the founder or co-founder of several organizations committed to increasing access to vegan lifestyles for Baltimore residents and beyond. In 2017, she started Thrive Baltimore, a community center offering free classes, cooking demos, and other vegan-centered programming. In 2018, Sanders co-opened a storefront for The Greener Kitchen (formerly PEP Foods, Inc.), a vegan business collective that produced and distributed affordable vegan foods. While both Thrive Baltimore and The Greener Kitchen were forced to close during the pandemic, another of Sanders' projects, Vegan Soulfest, took place this past weekend, August 19th and 20th, in West Covington Park.

After 12 years of service with the Office of Sustainability as an Environmental Planner, Abby Cocke has departed for a new position as a Community Engagement Organizer with the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative where she will be working on Maryland-based climate and energy campaigns. We’re very sad to see Abby go but excited for her in this next phase of her career! Over the course of her time with our Office, Abby worked on a wide range of topics and programs including the development of more supportive city policies for urban agriculture, increasing support for green schools and outdoor learning initiatives, managing our awesome youth intern team, supporting community-based COVID-19 relief efforts, serving on the city’s Trauma-Informed Care Task Force, and much more. You can reach her at abby.cocke@gmail.com if you want to catch up or wish her well. Stay tuned for a future job announcement as we seek a qualified candidate to fill her shoes!

As we say goodbye to one staff member, we welcome another. The Office of Sustainability is thrilled to share that Grace Hansen has joined our team as a Coastal Planner where she will work closely with the Critical Area Management Program, Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project (DP3), and Floodplain Management for the City. Grace previously served as a coastal resilience analyst/coastal planner for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission in Coastal Virginia. She collaborated with seventeen local governments across the Hampton Roads region to strengthen the region’s ability to adapt to recurrent flooding issues. Grace holds a Master of Arts degree in International Environmental Policy with a specialization in ocean and coastal resource management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a BA in environmental studies from Rollins College. She is a former collegiate swimmer and spends her weekends as an Ocean Rescue Lieutenant in Sea Colony, Delaware. She is also an avid athlete in the sport of USLA surf racing where she competes at the local, regional, and national levels. Grace is originally from Timonium, Maryland, and is excited to be back in the area.

Cooling Cities: Harnessing Natural Areas to Combat Urban Heat -- Natural Areas Conservancy

Last summer, a team from Baltimore participated in a nationwide study led by New York City-based Natural Areas Conservancy to examine the cooling potential of forests and green spaces. The results were telling - these natural areas were up to 9 degrees cooler than average citywide temperatures depending on city and forest type. Improving forests and green spaces is vital to better managing the effects of a changing climate! This cooling study will help Baltimore chart a better path for our future.

Environmental Justice Toolkit for Lead Paint Enforcement Programs -- US EPA

Lead exposure and poisoning are some of the most concerning environmental justice issues. EPA's new toolkit "...provides strategies, examples, and other information for federal, state, Tribal and local government enforcement practitioners to use during all stages of environmental enforcement and compliance monitoring activities designed to eliminate harmful exposures to lead paint in housing."

Do you have any crafting materials you no longer use? Have your kids outgrown their old backpacks, clothes, and school supplies? This back-to-school month, we wanted to share some ways that you can donate lightly or heavily used school supplies and clothes. Baltimore City Public Schools takes many kinds of higher-quality donations to support students in need. You can also donate to SCRAP Bmore, which often serves as an economical way for many local students, teachers, and creatives to purchase previously-loved or barely-used supplies. The Baltimore County Public Schools' Education Foundation also has a year-round school supply resource program called "Tools for School" to support teachers in stocking their classrooms. You can host a supply drive and coordinate a drop-off at two Exchangeree locations around the County. You can also recycle bookbags and clothes by purchasing a "take back bag" from For Days which you can fill and send back. They take "all textiles, including socks, underwear, sheets, pillowcases, towels, textile scraps, linens, shoes, and handbags in any condition. Ripped, torn, or stained, your oldies will get a new life with the help of our recycling partners and be diverted from landfills." Once they receive your textiles bag, you earn a $20 store credit at For Days. Happy recycling!