Letter Carrier Food Drive; BMC at monthly Interfaith meeting

We're Giving Out More Food Than Ever

The line in green shows that April was our busiest month in more than three years operating the Friendship Center Food Pantry.

This past April had the most total household visits in our 3+ years as a food pantry: 815 total visits. We averaged 163 household visits per week; in April 2013 we averaged 139 visits per week.

As for the first week in May, we had 152 visits on Wednesday, May 7, a large number for the first week of the month. By comparison, last May we served 114 households in the first week of May.

So far I am aware of 5 or 6 people who lost their jobs when the hospital closed who have come to the pantry. Otherwise, I thnk the increase is due to reduction in food stamp (SNAP) benefits and in the cutoff of long-term unemployment insurance.

We brought in more than 5,000 lbs. of food this past Tuesday.

So the annual Letter Carrier Food Drive on Saturday, May 10, is very important. We get donations from North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida. These donations are split among the Friendship Center Food Pantry, the Berkshire Food Project, the Salvation Army and the Dream Center, all of whom do great work.

With the promotional help of Mass in Motion, last year we processed 15,500 lbs. of food donations in 2013, two tons more than in 2012.

This kept us going and saved us from having to pay much for food for a month. Please be generous.

Anyone interested and able to help in sorting the food collected in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida should come down to 107 Main St. in North Adams (just west of the Mohawk Theater) between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. This takes a lot of volunteer power and is a lot of fun. Call the Friendship Center at 413-664-0123 if you need more information. Or you can email me at markrondeau@earthlink.net.

BMC at May 16th Interfaith meeting

Above, our pantry nurses, Cindy Croce and Barb Cariddi now both work for Berkshire Health Systems/Berkshire Medical Center, headquartered in Pittsfield. Below, NARH sign on Route 2 — sort of covered up.

In response to some complaints from North Adams people on their reception at Berkshire Medical Center, on Wednesday morning, April 30, Sean Jennings, MA VP Berkshire Medical Center Support Services addressed pantry members in the Eagle Street Room and answered questions about their concerns.

When I spoke to him afterward and mentioned that we have a monthly meeting, he immediately expressed interest and said he would try to have someone address us. He will be coming to our May 16 Interfaith meeting at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams, Eagle Street Room. He said he was trying to get member/s of the Senior Team at BMC to attend also.

We will begin with our customary period of introductions, announcements, silent prayer and faith sharing.

Later, on April 30, I sent an email to Mr. Jennings. Here is what I wrote to him in part, answering his question about what we should discuss:

“As for topic, I think the concerns that were passed along...to Barb Cariddi from our pantry members about transportation and the attitude they encountered would be good. It would also be great to have an update to the extent possible about BMC's plans for north county and the NARH building.”

I added,

“I think many of us, myself included, are eager to find ways to partner with and encourage BHS and BMC in their efforts to fill in the void left by the bankruptcy of our health system. I personally had a [test] at the Crane Center on Friday, the first time I had been a patient at BMC, and was quite pleased with my care and the attitude of the people providing it.”

Back to now: The fact that I didn't have a problem doesn't mean that others from North County didn't have problems. In fact, my contact with non-medical personnel was minimal and limited to one person. And I HAD private transportation down to Pittsfield, which many people up here don't.

Anyway, I am looking forward to an enlightening and civil discussion, much as was had at the April meeting of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on the hospital’s closing.

God Bless,

Mark

On Food and Friendship

Friends,

“I don’t feel poor when I’m here.”

These words came recently from a visitor to and member of the Friendship Center food pantry, and we discussed this comment some at the April 15 meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative.

We covered a lot of ground at this meeting and had a dynamic and informative discussion about the food pantry and the upcoming letter carriers’ food drive on Saturday, May 14.

It was indeed an informative discussion. I, for one, did not understand how the letter carriers’ food drive worked until we discussed it that day with Dick Dassatti and others who have been involved with it in the past.

For the sake of not presenting too much at once, however, I am going to break the April 15 meeting up into two blog posts — the first on the evaluation of the food pantry and the second on the food drive.

So far, we have served — as I write this on April 22 — 27, 14, 36, 21, 65, 53, 55, 49, and 62 households. We now have just over 200 households signed up as members.

At the beginning of evaluating our food pantry operation at the meeting, I said I thought we deserved an "A" in our first eight weeks of operation. I was pleased when Shirley McDonald of the Berkshire Community Action Council also said she thought we deserved that grade.

But, as I said at the meeting, as important as giving out food is the attitude of treating our visitors with respect, as friends, as brothers and sisters. Our time of prayer before we open the front door each Wednesday helps remind us of this.

Our discussion focused on ways of getting more food and other necessities from the Food Bank and through working with local supermarkets and stores like CVS. Al Nelson brought up the very good point about an action plan for each of these items.

We need people to fully investigate our relationships with the three supermarkets in North Adams, and Wal-Mart and CVS. To an extent, members are already taking this upon themselves. We can see how that goes over the next several weeks and see if we need to take some more concerted effort.

We also need an action plan to reach out to our houses of worship for food, funds and volunteers. In developing an action plan for faith communities, things can get a bit more complicated than in reaching out to local grocery and general items stores, which are mostly located in North Adams.

For instance, though we are an Interfaith group for all of Northern Berkshire, in seeking to connect with faith communities for donations of food and funds do we need to confine our efforts just to the communities we serve with the food pantry — Ie. North Adams, Florida and Clarksburg? This hesitancy is because these communities each have their own food pantries, and we don't want to impinge on their efforts. As the pantry in Williamstown is small, perhaps we can work out a cooperative sharing arrangement for food and funds and perhaps can freely recruit volunteers from there.

Indeed, we do need more volunteers. We are open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Wednesday at 43 Eagle St., next to Papyri Books.

Volunteers do such things as fill orders of food from our shelves for those who come for food, help with the registration process and record keeping, and greet people at the door. Volunteers do not have to serve the whole three hours or every week — even working one hour or one day occasionally can give a regular volunteer a break.

Those interested in volunteering may contact volunteer coordinator Denise Krutiak at denisekrutiak@yahoo.com.

As for funds, as Shirley McDonald said at our April 15 meeting, if we wish to get more food, we need to start fundraising. Fortunately, we already do have some donated money in the bank. But we could use more.

Right now, the biggest reason to seek more funds is because of cuts in funding of programs for the poor in the federal budget. It’s already happened for the remainder of this fiscal year and very likely to continue in the next. So we may end up having to buy food ourselves to have enough to give out.

In addition, it’s important to note a very interesting aspect of the food pantry “business” — pantries usually can get more mileage out of a direct cash donation of money than a donation of food. The reason is simple: Food can be purchased from food banks by food pantries for less than supermarket prices — often for much less than supermarket prices. So the donated dollar can go much further than one spent for a can of food at a supermarket.

Anyone wishing to make a monetary donation to the food pantry shoud make a check out to the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative and send it to 43 Eagle St., North Adams MA 01247.

We eventually may put a Paypal feature on our Facebook page, but we’re not there yet.

Our next meeting

The next meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will be held on Friday, May 20, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams (use Eagle Street entrance).

Our meetings, which are open to people of all faiths, begin with a time of silent prayer and faith sharing, followed by announcements. People of all faiths and all people of goodwill are welcome to attend.

In May, the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will be one year old. We may or may not have a birthday cake at the next meeting. But what an interesting year it’s been. From a drumming circle at the Downtown Celebration in August to a Friendship Center and food pantry in February!

We may have a discussion on affordable housing with a group from Boston at our May meeting, but as I write this I have not yet heard back from them.

Other thoughts

• Our volunteers continue to be incredible. So many wonderful people so many of whom I didn’t know a year ago.

• I went into the Friendship Center today and discovered that Stuart Crampton has made a wonderful certificate (suitable for framing and public display) that we can give to businesses that help us.

• I wish to thank John McDonald of Williamstown for giving us a desktop Canon copier in good working condition. (See photo below). And thanks to Liz Boland for letting me know it was available.

• Mike and Lois Daunis are still the people, more than anyone else, who have made the Friendship Center and the food pantry possible.

• I hope all my Jewish and Christian friends have had and are having good holy days in their respective traditions.

God bless you all,

Mark

Photos: All 21 of us present at the April 15 Interfaith meeting at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. Photo by Bert Lamb. Below: The copier donated to the Friendship Center by John McDonald of Williamstown.