Charm City Dreamers

In this episode we interview executive director of Moveable Feast Sue Elias. Moveable Feast strives to foster a community that cares for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses by preparing and delivering nutritious meals and groceries and providing nutritional counseling and other services. This is a continuation of our series on Food Resiliency and specifically explores food as medicine and healthcare.

Matt Burke is the executive director of Food Rescue Baltimore. In this episode we discuss how access to food is a basic human right, and should not be dependent on class or economic interests. Food Rescue Baltimore is dedicated to food justice: ensuring equal access to nutritious food, and providing for those in need in Baltimore's communities.

Farmer Nell is the founder and owner of City Weeds, an innovative urban agricultural business in Baltimore, that is striving to make healthy food options available in the city's food deserts. He also founded Be More Green which promotes youth empowerment. In this episode we discuss how he reimagines the corner store to become place to promote healthy living.

Ms. Freishtat is Baltimore City's first Food Policy Director and is the Chief of Food Policy & Planning Division in the Department of Planning. She created and oversees the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (BFPI) with the goal to address food system policy and to build an equitable and resilient urban food system. She works city-wide with many government departments to align priorities and projects around improving the Baltimore City food environment. Recognizing that government can't address food access alone, she uses a multi-sector perspective and engages with many agencies, nonprofits, community groups and stakeholders to dismantle policy barriers, facilitate new partnerships and leverage funding to implement innovative solutions to address food access and urban agriculture issues in Baltimore.

In this episode we interview Stephen Garten the founder of Charity Charge which is a B corporation focused on social change. Charity charge is empowering consumers to help non-profits and helping non-profits receive access to financial products. We also discuss what is social entrepreneurship and how we measure social impact & change. This episode was a Mcdonogh Alumni conversation webinar that we have converted into a Charm City Dreamer episode. Enjoy!

In this episode we interviewed Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos a pulmonary critical care doctor at Johns Hopkins, researcher for NIH, vaccine consultant for Astrazeneca and founder of the community non-profit social health organization Medicine For The Greater Good. We explore the current facts around the vaccine, steps to prevent spread, and equip our listeners on how to best stay informed & up to date on COVID 19.

Sam is the founder of Baltimore Votes and the Director of Full Participation Program at the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC). He leads NCoC's efforts to cultivate the country's largest network of local leaders committed to ensuring their communities achieve full participation in elections. Locally, Baltimore Votes is committed to working towards a future where every person, in every precinct votes in every election, and that work doesn't stop just because our city is in the middle of a health crisis. Your support in this unprecedented time means so much to us.

Valeria Fuentes is the founder of Roots and Raíces, which is a platform for artists, musicians, and activists to highlight, support, and celebrate immigrants in Baltimore through the arts and civic engagement. In this episode we focus on civic engagement and voting initiatives within the hispanic community. She is also on the advisory board of Baltimore Votes.

In this episode we discuss voting rights for people who have been affected by the criminal justice system. Out for Justice, Inc. (OFJ) is a grassroots nonprofit organization that was founded in 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland by a group of formerly incarcerated individuals who were ready and willing to work but repeatedly denied employment due to their criminal record. With the support of justice-impacted individuals, their friends, and their family members, OFJ strives to bring about policy reform that ends employment barriers and perpetual punishment that adversely affects citizens impacted by the criminal justice system.

Natasha Murphy is a firm believer in enacting meaningful change via informed planning, policy, and advocacy. Natasha proudly serves as the Deputy Director of Advocacy for Black Girls Vote, Inc. a nonprofit, grassroots organization focused on engaging, educating, and empowering women of color to leverage their voting power to transform the democratic process.