Community Blog
Reduce, Reuse & Recycle
Women’s Month with Rhonda Keyser at BSEC, Sunday, March 8 @ 12:30PM
Dear Friends:
Please join me for a special celebration of Women’s Month with Rhonda Keyser – a model of the ‘activist’ organizer – and her daughter Maybelle Keyser-Butson – a young musician and artist.
Sunday, March 8, 2026 @ 12:30 PM
Brooklyn Ethical
265 4th Avenue @ Garfield Place
(for zoom link RSVP at bsec.org)
Activism as an Ethical and Civic Practice
This talk explores activism as an ethical and civic practice — showing how education, participation in public process, and youth leadership empower historically disempowered students, build democratic skills, influence policy change, and transform communities.
About the Speaker and Musician
Rhonda Keyser is the Program and Policy Director for Cafeteria Culture. She is also an actress, environmental educator, and grassroots organizer. Stewarded by her leadership, CafCu’s school programs and education + action toolkits, a growing collection of lesson plans and activities centering students as leaders across New York City, have resulted in the diversion of 85 to 97% of school cafeteria waste from landfills and incinerators. CafCu’s scaling of hyper-local youth-led solutions has reduced more than 32 million single-use plastic items in New York City School lunches to date. In addition, Keyser is a leading advocate for indoor air quality in schools and has co-created the “know-your-rights” manual, Safe School Renovation, with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. She serves on the board of Sure We Can, NYC’s only non-profit bottle and can redemption center, and is Vice Chair of the Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board.
Maybelle Keyser-Butson is a senior at Barnard College studying English, Creative Writing, and French. Growing up around artists and activists, Maybelle has always been surrounded by conversations about art, action, and change. She writes creative essays and has recently recorded two original singles with a producer in Brooklyn. After graduating, she plans to teach English for a year in Paris before returning to the United States for graduate school.
All the best,
Vandra Thorburn, Founder
VOKASHI – kitchen waste solution
2023 Community Impact Award – NYWIB PitchTank
2021 Citizen's Committee Grantee
2010 2nd Place PowerUp Competition
vokashi.com
718 623 1911
Vokashi
For easy composting at home
The goal Vokashi set out to achieve is to decrease the amount of food that ends up in landfills. Most of us don't think about where our food is going when we throw it in the trash, but food waste makes up about 1/3 of the waste in landfills in the US. That's a lot! Vokashi aims to change that by following a Japanese method of fermenting food waste. Vokashi takes your food waste and uses it in a composting system. There are many benefits to composting, but one of the biggest ones is lowering your carbon footprint by decreasing the amount of food waste in landfills, which reduces methane emissions. If you want to learn more about the process or how to get involved with this company, visit Vokashi.com.
