Memorial Episcopal Church

"Filbert Street Extended Inner Garden & Sheep Project"

What do you hope to accomplish with this project?

Specifically, the Partners [Filbert St. Community Garden and Memorial Episcopal] want to expand the availability of community garden plots [at Filbert] by 30%, allowing more [Curtis Bay area] residents to plant and cultivate healthy food. The construction of new, raised garden plots will be a joint effort of Memorial’s families, other parishioners and community members, and Filbert volunteer stewards and Curtis Bay community members. Memorial and Filbert will utilize social media to advertise this action.

The partners also wish to introduce a new animal type—a dwarf sheep—to expand animal husbandry education available at Filbert. This includes annual harvesting of wool fleece, and education around the benefits for both sheep and humans.

Of equal importance to the specific accomplishments is the prospect for meaningful interaction between Memorial families, particularly with younger children, and Curtis Bay community members. Learning together in a non-school setting, much less a quasi-farm-like setting, offers the prospect of great and lasting meaning to the participants of differing economic and social backgrounds.

Advocated for cash bail reform in Maryland.

This committee advocates for educational equality in Baltimore City and throughout the state. One means, pursued in the recent several years (from 2017), has been the founding of Strong Schools Maryland which has grown into an organization representing over 110 faith-based and other organizations to lobby for education reform at the state level.  Memorial is a founding member.  Baltimore City schools are administered by the Maryland State Department of Education under a 1988 Federal Consent Decree.