Members in attendance: Tinku Khanwalkar (chairperson), Dieter Kretschy, Holly Edinger, Jon Stanley,
Jennifer Swann
Guests: Matt Tuerk, Ge Xu (Lehigh U.) Marsha Akoto (Lehigh U.), Maddie Tschauner (Lehigh U.),
Shanice Clarke (resident), Jacob Kidd (jkidd@muhlenberg.edu), Jeremy Taylor
(jeremy@somaxhtc.com), Julie Thomases (resident)
Welcome and Introductions: See above
Approval of November Minutes: Passes
Decision on December Meeting: No meeting needed.
Date for Strategic Planning Session:
•
We will include Julie Thomases to bring input on Civilian Climate Core as representative of Promise
Neighborhood
•
Date for the planning meeting will be circulated via email.
Old Business
2021 Goals Reports
1. Waste Minimization/Food Waste – Holly Edinger/Dieter Kretschy/ Jackob Kidd
a. Jacob finished calls with grocery stores and found that many are already donating what they can
to local resources/ food kitchens.
b. There is waste food/ non-edible that is probably going into the landfill.
c. Look to find a way to gather food waste from local institutes and keep it out of landfill. Possibly
use it as pig feed or other farm resource.
d. Installation of an anaerobic digester to serve the institutes of the city, expand on the city’s
wastewater treatment plant (LCA). LCA is interested but, the economics don’t work to haul waste to
the system. Add this to 2022 goals.
2. Allentown Civilian Climate Corps (Tinku)
a. Feasibility Study is being developed by Promise Neighborhood to have a neighborhood
engagement corp. that would support clean and safe neighborhoods.
b. Possible Americorp employees that would/could do this work.
c. Lehigh University Graduate students are establishing guidelines for community based litter
cleanups, develop tools to have more cleanups, identify materials needed, how to engage Allentown
residents who may have language/ free time challenges, and determine how to engage with Citizen
Climate Corp.
d. Penn State LV Chance is the sustainability group at PSULV and they may be a good partner.
3. Litter/Invasive Plant Removal Events
a. 401 Cleveland- Neighborhood based cleanup where we tried to connect and did a lot of cleanup
with the support of the Public Works employees
b. Big Brothers Big Sisters- To be held Nov. 13, 11am-3pm, 41 S. Carlisle Street, Allentown. Jon
is helping get support/ equipment from city.
4. Create a public repository of sustainability data and build social media following
a. Could we have a monthly blurb on/ in a news outlet to share progress of EAC or talk about a
topic that we are working on?
b. Monthly blogs… could feed news to news outlets, then
5. Sustainable Pennsylvania Communities Certification (Tinku)
a. City finished the review and Irene will share it with EAC
