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.


January 16, 2017

Sisters of Selma

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, January’s film is Sisters of Selma. Kathy Boylan of the activist Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in DC will speak and lead a discussion after the film. This month’s program is sponsored by the Baha’i Community of Greenbelt in conjunction with Green Vegan Networking.

In 1965, a diverse alliance of dedicated activists came together in Selma, Alabama to protest the denial of voter registration to African Americans. Among the first to join the effort was a group of Catholic nuns. Sisters of Selma chronicles the groundbreaking actions of these activist women, told through 2003 interviews. A powerful, affirming new story of faith and justice emerges.

The 2014 film Selma brought back to national awareness the memory of the nonviolent protests, and the violent official reaction that brought federal support for the culminating March to Montgomery. Soon after, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Sisters of Selma tells the story of an unforeseen group of brave women drawn to support the cause of justice in Selma.

The Catholic Church owes much of its record of social activism to its vowed women, for whom service is the highest calling. In fact, most orders of nuns were founded for social service. It is not surprising, then, that in 1965 the sisters came to the city of Selma, Alabama, to help African-American citizens of the South fighting for their civil rights. A new generation of African Americans was challenging the status quo of the Deep South of the ’60s. These nuns of the Catholic Church joined the civil rights struggle, and in so doing, the Church and the sisters were themselves transformed.

For more information on Sisters of Selma, please contact Joy Allchin at or Cam MacQueen at .

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