In the News
City Of Refuge Victory Garden Uplifts South Baltimore Community With Fresh Produce
Posted June 12, 2021
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Nestled within a city block in the Brooklyn neighborhood of South Baltimore sits an urban farm, hidden from the outside world.
“When I was growing up here, this was a used lot for people to park their cars,“ said Jennifer the garden manager of what is now known as the City of Refugee Victory Garden.
“When we first got here, you couldn’t pass through the alley,” said Berg, “the trash trucks couldn’t get through because there was no reason to keep it clean.”
Now a team of people works to keep it clean, while fresh produce is grown to be sold to local restaurants or given away to people in the community.
City of Refuge Victory Garden in Brooklyn Triples in Size
Posted June 12, 2021
BALTIMORE (WBAL) — WIN Waste Innovations donated $50,000 to Grow Home to invest in the expansion of City of Refuge Victory Garden in the South Baltimore neighborhood of Brooklyn. WIN Waste and Grow Home partnered to create new jobs and expand the garden’s reach.
“They have these innovative sustainable practices, they are supporting workforce development, and that’s why we’re so excited to be here,” explains Mary Urban, Communications and Outreach Manager at WIN Waste Innovations. “It allows the garden to grow, it allows more produce to be in the markets and to be in the restaurants, and then the garden can sustain itself.”
Meet Gwynnda: Baltimore’s fourth, newest, and biggest trash wheel
Posted June 03, 2021
BALTIMORE — Meet Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West.
She’s Baltimore’s fourth, newest , and biggest trash wheel, that will be installed at the mouth of the Gwynns Falls in Baltimore’s Middle Branch.
The name Gwynnda was chosen in March from thousands of submissions.
Gwynnda is expected to collect 300 tons of trash and debris from the Gwynns Falls each year, more than her three siblings combined.
Clearwater Mills in Pasadena constructed Gwynnda with a grappling arm to help move large debris, and 72 solar panels which allows the wheel to turn with a series of rakes and a conveyor belt that lifts trash from the water into a dumpster barge.
Like her predecessors, Gwynnda is decked out with five-foot tall googly-eyes.
Wheelabrator Technologies owns property next to the project and is assuming the cost of personnel and equipment to offload trash from the wheel directly to its waste-to-energy facility, where the plan is to convert into trash into electricity.
Baltimore Faith Leaders Want New City Officials To Know They’re Around To Lend Helping Hand, Keep Watchful Eye
Posted February 23, 2021
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore’s faith community wants newly elected City officials to know that they’re here to offer a helping hand, as well as a watchful eye.
“I’m doing the same thing I do every week,” Smith said. “To help out the community, to clean up the streets of Baltimore.”
The program provides job training sponsored by Wheelabrator Baltimore and a coalition of local churches.
“This is a covenant with government,” Rev. Al Hathaway, of Union Baptist Church, said.
Wheelabrator Baltimore Supports CityWide Youth Development in West Baltimore
Posted November 19, 2020
BALTIMORE — Wheelabrator Baltimore has partnered with CityWide Youth Development as they open their new location at the EMAGE (Entrepreneurs Making And Growing Enterprises) Center.
CityWide Youth Development in West Baltimore that provides solutions for crime and poverty through manufacturing and entrepreneurship. In addition to providing a retail distribution center to support local manufacturing, the EMAGE Center will serve as the first apparel manufacturing facility in Baltimore’s inner city, where individuals can learn valuable manufacturing skills. The team is currently focused on producing face masks and other PPE to protect the people of Maryland during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Wheelabrator Baltimore’s donation to the work of CityWide Youth Development aligns with the company’s commitment to community workforce training, and they are pleased to support this program and all its work to help the community during this critical time.
Wheelabrator Baltimore makes donation to support holiday events at VFW 2916 in Brooklyn
Posted November 12, 2020
BALTIMORE — The holidays will be a particularly difficult time for families in need during the pandemic.
The team at Wheelabrator Baltimore has partnered with the Veterans of Foreign Wars Lodge 2916 in Brooklyn/Curtis Bay to help members of the community in need in the leadup to Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.
The company is donating $2,500 to support upcoming VFW community engagement initiatives for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The VFW has been an integral part of the Brooklyn/Curtis Bay neighborhood since November of 1933. The lodge will continue its spirit of giving back by supporting six needy families with Thanksgiving baskets this month. The VFW will also provide gifts to community children at Christmas.
“Wheelabrator is just happy to support the team at the VFW,” said Wheelabrator Baltimore plant manager Austin Pritchard. “It has been a tough year. With the holidays coming up, we’ve been proud to make this donation to help support them during this time of the year.”
Wheelabrator Baltimore Donates to Public Health and Safety Initiative at Safe Streets Cherry Hill
Posted November 5, 2020
BALTIMORE — While the world faces an unprecedented public health crisis, Baltimore continues fighting both the pandemic and the violence that threatens the health and safety of our city.
Safe Streets Cherry Hill is a public health and safety initiative designed to reduce homicides and shootings in Cherry Hill and nearby communities in Baltimore. The organization targets high risk individuals from ages 14-25, working to mediate and deescalate disputes that might otherwise result in violence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Safe Streets has also been educating the community about social distancing and other necessary health precautions.
Wheelabrator Baltimore has partnered with the organization in the past to hold community clean ups to promote cleanliness and safety in this area of the city. The company is thrilled to make a donation to the Safe Streets Cherry Hill program which is challenging how people think about violence and public safety.
Wheelabrator Baltimore Makes a Donation to the Mack Lewis Boxing Gym
Posted October 29, 2020
Wheelabrator Baltimore is pleased to support the Mack Lewis Boxing Gym in its work to provide support to children and the community in Baltimore.
“We are just absolutely excited to support these guys at the Mack Lewis Gym,” said Wheelabrator Baltimore plant manager Austin Pritchard. “They do such awesome work and provide opportunity to the kids around here. We’re just helping out however we can in 2020.”
Wheelabrator Baltimore Provides Three Neighborhoods Dumpsters For Recycling Drop-Off
By: WMAR Staff | Posted at 5:23 PM, May 07, 2020
BALTIMORE — Financial hardships are continuing to grow in the community because of COVID-19.
Two organizations are teaming up to provide a little relief to those in need.
Wheelabrator Baltimore and City of Refuge are teaming up to provide meals for 300 households in the Brooklyn area as part of City of Refuge’s mission to provide light, hope and transformation to families.
“Brooklyn and Curtis Bay are already and undeserved community. We are in a food desert, so we’ve been doing this for years, but what we’ve seen is an increase in the volume of people that we serve and the need that is around us with COVID-19”
Almost 40% of all families in the vicinity of City of Refuge live at or below the federal poverty level for their household makeup.
Their food pantry is open every Thursday from 9:00 a.m. until noon.
They also provide daily meals for youth from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and for adults from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Wheelabrator collecting trash for free, three pick-up locations in Baltimore
By: WMAR Staff | Posted at 4:37 PM, Jun 25, 2020
BALTIMORE — DPW trash pickup is back to full force.
While that’s good news going forward, it doesn’t help those who still have bags of garbage stinking up their yard.
Members of ‘Wheelabrator Baltimore’ along with several community partners have three different trash collection sites in the city, where people can dump their garbage and go.
One of those sites is Maree G. Farring Elementary in South Baltimore. Drop-offs were on Thursday only, from 8am-1pm.
Those in charge, explained to WMAR-2 News about why this collection is so important.
“You’ll have the odor in the street, you’ll have rats. So, we have an opportunity to do something now, you know we can go ahead and recycle, we can go ahead and dispose of this waste before DPW gets back on the street and before we have a big mess on our hands.”
Recycling and trash will be separated when you drop off your trash.
Anything that can’t be recycled will be fed into the Wheelabrator Incinerator and turned into energy.
A project of Wheelabrator Baltimore.