Reel and Meal at the New Deal

Reel and Meal is a monthly film series at the New Deal Cafe exploring vital environmental, animal rights, and social justice issues. Admission to the film is always free, sponsored by several Greenbelt community organizations. Contributions are gladly accepted to cover each month’s donation to a non-profit organization.

Reel and Meal events are in-person (limited seating) and online via Zoom.  Each month registration links will be posted here.  You can also reach out to Reel and Meal at

Date: Third Monday of every month
Time: The free film starts at 7pm.
Dinner: Dinners are available at the café after 4pm with several plant-based options.
Carryout: The Co-Op Supermarket Meatless Monday meals can be picked up from the “grab and go” for Zoom at-home viewing after 11am.
Location: Online or at the New Deal Cafe – 113 Centerway in historic Greenbelt, MD
Public transportation: The cafe is accessible by Metro Buses G12, 13, 14 and 16 from the Greenbelt Metro station.

March 19, 2018

Defending Utopia: The Greenbelt News Review at 80

Defending Utopia: The News Review at 80
This photo is taken in 1942 and is thought to be of then Editor Sally Meredith.

Defending Utopia: The Greenbelt News Review at 80 tells the story of a courageous home town newspaper and the battles it fought on behalf of its citizens.

In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal planners launched an extraordinary home-building experiment in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

Greenbelt, Maryland was the most controversial of three suburban “green towns” designed to relieve Depression-era housing shortages. Residents were selected for their willingness to create a healthy, happy and harmonious community.

But critics charged that the “utopian” green towns project was foolishly idealistic, wasted taxpayer dollars and tat Greenbelt’s many non-profit cooperatives were dangerously socialistic, if not communistic.

Since 1937, though, a volunteer-run weekly newspaper has defended a city Eleanor Roosevelt called “the first garden community in the land, planned for the uplift and unfolding of the human.” And in a 1970 libel case before the Supreme Court, the Greenbelt News Review fought to protect for all newspapers the First Amendment freedoms critical to American democracy.

The March Reel and Meal program is presented by the Utopia Film Festival. For more information on this month’s program contact Susan Barnett at 301 474 7465 or Frank Gervasi at 301 474 7680.

Trailer