We run faster than the dog days

Topics in this post: Food Pantry statistics; getting more food: supermarkets, food drives, churches, food planning meeting; collaboration with MCLA and Williams; voucher system steering committee formed; topics for August and October Interfaith meetings; need for Food Stamps grows tremendously; minutes of the July Interfaith Action Initiative Meeting.

So much has been going on with the Interfaith Initiative and the food pantry at the Friendship Center, as well as the overall Interfaith Action Initiative, that it’s difficult at times to know where to start.

Some statistics

First, it can be safely said that we have had a successful start to our evening hours, which began on July 13. We have had 16, 8, 28, and 11 families come to the Friendship Center during our second session since it started. During the same period, we’ve had 68, 78, 86, and 51 families for our first session.

This adds up to combined totals of 84, 86, 114 and 62 families served in the last four weeks. The July 27 total is a new record for one day.

(We are open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Wednesday.)

We now have about 442 member households.

After our July Interfaith Action Initiative meeting, Stuart Crampton reported that of our first 377 members, there have been 12 from Adams, 11 from Williamstown, 1 from Cheshire, 9 from Clarksburg and 3 from Florida, leaving 341 from North Adams.

Our Interfaith meetings continue to be well attended, with 18 people attending the July meeting. As for our Internet presence, this blog had 176 page views in July, down from our all-time high of 204 in June. Some 34 people “like” our Facebook page and even more people look at it, as we had 49 unique active users in July. The email list I use to send out monthly meeting announcements has about 145 addresses on it.

Seeking food, and finding it

Our volunteers have been extremely proactive and productive in finding sources of food. For instance, we have had productive meetings and have set up, or are in the process of setting up, arrangements with all three supermarkets in North Adams. In fact, we received our first delivery of “salvage” from Price Chopper on Aug. 3. (And we also received fresh vegetables on Aug. 3 from The Berkshire Food Project. Thanks, BFP. for the unexpected added benefit for our friends!)

And our volunteers have sprung into action, such as Tony Pisano, who arranged a food drive at the July 24 SteepleCats game, which netted 105 pounds in food donations and some cash for food purchases.

Thanks to Joan Owczarski, who is a librarian and another of our great volunteers, the North Adams Public Library is holding a non-perishable food drive to benefit our efforts to feed our friends, family and neighbors in need. The drive will run through Sept. 6. Donations can be dropped off at the front circulation desk. (See photo above).

I must say that I am pleased with the amount of food donations we have received from local churches. We make sure that all such donations are acknowledged promptly.

At my church, St. Elizabeth of Hungary in North Adams, my cousin, Evelyn Disanti, does great work in bringing the food donated there over to the Friendship Center periodically. One of my jobs is as bulletin editor there, and I recently put in the following announcement, which may serve as a model for others to follow:

Food Donations Welcome

The Friendship Center Food Pantry, located at 43 Eagle St. in North Adams, has been open since mid-February and now has a list of close to 400 member families, who are eligible to receive food every two weeks.

The pantry, which is an effort of the ecumenical Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative, is open on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and later in the day from 4 to 7 p.m. On the most recent Wednesday before this bulletin was printed, the pantry served a total of 114 families.

The pantry currently needs cans of tuna and boxes of macaroni & cheese. All other non-perishable foods are also welcome. If you wish to make a donation of food, please leave it in the receptacle in the back of the church. Thank you and God Bless.

Our Initiative planning meeting this coming week will deal with acquiring more food as we add more pantry members. Our great food distribution coordinator, Mark Lincourt, will be setting the agenda and and leading this meeting.

Speaking of food, Mark just gave me these statistics: As of July 1, we had recievd 14,291 lbs. of food from the Western Mass. Food Bank via BCAC at a total cost of $411.73 to them, mostly for salvage (items such as dented cans supermarkets donate or sell).

We have recieved 9,899 lbs. from private donations, 8,000 lbs. of which was from the Postal Carriers’ Food Drive. We have invested $306.58 in food.

Our grocery bag weight is 18 to 20 pounds. At the present time, our average weekly draw is at 1,900 lbs. per week — and growing!

Collaboration with MCLA & Williams

The main topic of our July meeting (see meeting minutes below) was collaboration with local colleges, and things are starting to happen.

On Monday, Aug. 8, about 40 people, mostly students, from the MCLA LEAD Academy will visit the Friendship Center as part of their City Tour. On Tuesday, a team of students from the Academy will be distributing flyers promoting the North Adams Public Library

Food Drive for the Friendship Center. (See photo above).

On Wednesday, the students will help us out at the Friendship Center, starting out helping with the morning food delivery and stocking shelves and later helping with our first session.

We hope much good will come from this collaboration. And the same is true with Williams College, as we are working with student Lauren Shuffleton and Chaplain Rick Spalding to arrange a similar orientation with students over the Labor Day weekend which would lead to a campus food drive in September.

More details will be forthcoming.

We can vouch for you

Continued kudos to Stuart Crampton for his work on establishing an emergency voucher system for Northern Berkshire. In July he established a steering committee, which includes David Ranzer and Al Nelson for North Adams, Tammy Scalise and Corinne Case for Adams, and Rich Davis and Stuart for Williamstown. The committeean will be holding a meeting at the Frienship Center in the near future. Thanks to all who are working on this.

Upcoming meeting topics

It looks like the main topic of our August Interfaith Action Initiative meeting will be a discussion with Vivian Orlowski, project director of the Faith Community Partnering for Emergency Preparedness program, of the Berkshire County Boards of Health Association. More details on this to follow.

And the meeting on Affordable Housing, which was postponed from June has been definitely rescheduled for the Interfaith Action Initiative meeting on Friday, Oct. 21.

The need is great

According to CNN, one in seven Americans is now on Food Stamps. New numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicate that nearly 46 million Americans now receive food stamps out of a population of 311 million. This number is up from 27 million in October 2007 and 37 million in 2009 — and is up almost 3 million from last October.

The headline on this item on newscaster Wolf Blitzer’s blog is “Hunger in America growing at staggering pace.”

The blog item concludes on a somewhat postive note: “By the way, the just-approved first round of nearly $1 trillion in debt ceiling spending cuts over the next 10 years exempted any cuts in the food stamps program.”

I wonder what the cost of food will be in 10 years....

Thanks for reading all this and God Bless. The minutes for the July Initiative meeting follow.

Mark

Minutes of the July Interfaith meeting

Attending: Al Nelson, Mark Rondeau, Denise Krutiak, Linda Greenbush, Tammy Scalise, Brittany Scalise, Enid Shields, Tony Pisano, Stuart Crampton, Holly Hardman, David Ranzer, Gail Obrest, Spencer Moser, Mark Lincourt, Sue Walker, Trancy M. Bean, Corrine Case, and Darlene Ellis.

Mark Rondeau opened the meeting at 10 am. Those already present introduced themselves. Al Nelson then called for a moment of silent prayer, followed by faith sharing. Mark Rondeau read a short note from Priscilla Lathrop, and Corinne Case expressed her appreciation for the way in which the Interfaith Initiative breaks down walls between different religious traditions. Al Nelson read a brief article describing how teens working together were able to rescue some professional boating people in an emergency, a story illustrating the importance of lay leadership in houses of worship.

Under announcements, Corinne Case introduced some information about the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice, including opportunities for training. David Ranzer annnounced the appointment of Rachel Barenblat as the interim rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel. Stuart Crampton mentioned the van sharing system maintained by Berkshire Rides. If NBIAI were to join by paying a share of the annual upkeep of the five vans, houses of worship who were members of NBIAI would then have access to vans (with priority on one of them), paying only the cost of the gas. That is, the houses of worship could pool their funds to buy a single share. Linda Greenbush, who is on the Berkshire Rides Board, clarified several issues raised by those present about the van system and other transportation issues.

Mark Rondeau then introduced Spencer Moser from MCLA, whose office introduces MCLA students to the Northern Berkshire community through short public service projects. For those with ideas of projects for him, his telephone number is 662 5251, and his email address is spencer.moser@mcla.edu. Mark Rondeau offered to open the food pantry for a visit by MCLA students on August 8, and there was discussion of further activity at the beginning of September. Mark then introduced Lauren Shuffleton from Williams, where she is involved with the Lehman Service Council and also works through Chaplain’s Office to promote interactions of Williams students with the local community. The “Where Am I” program over Labor Day weekend will introduce new Williams students in groups of ten to the local community through service projects. There was some discussion of ways in which NBIAI might be involved. Spencer Moser offered to share information with Lauren about past MCLA experiences of that sort. Anyone with an idea for Lauren can reach her at les1@williams.edu.

Mark Rondeau then described the recent purchase and installation of new shelves for the food pantry, thanks to the United Way money. He raised the question of what to do with the roughly $280 left over. Suggestions included other infrastructure such as a telephone system and a laptop computer. Denise Krutiak mentioned the need to buy food, and it was pointed out that there are other funds for that purpose. Denise called for an accounting of our recent history of buying food, and Stuart Crampton offered to prepare a report. It was decided to have a planning meeting specifically for food on August 12.

Mark Lincourt reported on the first week of being open from 4-7 on Wednesdays. Only 16 members came, but about half of them were new. It was agreed to be a successful beginning. Mark Lincourt also offered to look into the ADTI training offered on Tuesday, July 26. Several of those present plan to go and report back.

Stuart Crampton reported that the response to the proposed Northern Berkshire Ministry Fund voucher system was sufficiently positive to warrant establishing a steering committee to plan the transition from the Williamstown voucher system to a broader Northern Berkshire system. It was decided to go ahead with the printing of triplicate vouchers, to establish a second IAI bank account through nbCC, and to establish a steering committee to move ahead on enrolling houses of worship and vendors.

The meeting was adjourned very close to noon. The next general IAI meeting will be August 19.

Agenda for Our Meeting on Friday

Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative

Meeting: Friday, June 17, 2011, 10 a.m. to Noon

First Baptist Church of North Adams

(Use Eagle Street entrance)

1). Welcome/introductions.

2). Moment of silent prayer.

3). Faith sharing.

4). Brief announcements.

5). Discussion of emergency voucher system for Northern Berkshire. 10:20 to 11:45 a.m.

6). Grant from United Way for shelving in Friendship Center.

7). Al Nelson and Mark Rondeau’s discussion with Spencer Moser of MCLA.

8). Sense of the Initiative: Expansion of hours.

9). Next meeting: Friday, July 15, topic: To Be Determined.

10). Adjourn.

Rising spirits accompany rising temperatures

The Food Pantry needs peanut butter and macaroni and cheese. If you have any to donate, you may bring it to the Friendship Center, 43 Eagle St., North Adams, on Wednesdays between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Or email northernberkshireinterfaith@gmail.com or call 413-212-4890 and we will find a way to pick it up.

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Friends,

Much has been happening with the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative, so much that it is no longer easy for me to summarize the past month on this blog.

But here are some highlights:

• The next meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will be held on Friday, June 17, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams (use the Eagle Street entrance).

We will discuss expansion of an emergency voucher program from Williamstown to the whole Northern Berkshire area, including North Adams and Adams. Stuart Crampton has been doing fine work on this, and I look forward to seeing what comes forth from this meeting.

• One of the things that grew out of the May meeting of the Interfaith Action Initiative was action on beginning a planning committee for the Initiative as a whole, which of course includes the food pantry at the Friendship Center.

We did not widely publicize the planning first planning meeting, which was held at the Friendship Center on June 10, but several of those attending the May Interfaith meeting expressed interest in participating and many of those people were able to attend on June 10.

Each of the 10 or so of us present discussed our vision and priorities for the Interfaith Initiative. I don’t have the time to go into all the details here, but it was an inspiring discussion. At the end of the meeting, each of those present took away tasks. Some of us (especially food distribution coordinator Mark Lincourt and volunteer coordinator Denise Krutiak) will be planning how to add a second set of (evening in this case) hours to the food pantry’s current hours of operation, using all the wonderful and dedicated volunteers who have stepped forward to help. Two of us will be taking a more proactive stance in trying to secure a larger donated space in North Adams, though moving from our current location is not something we want or are prepared to do at any time in the near future.

But if we do eventually find a bigger space, we may want to offer services such as a drop-in center, and possibly even a homeless shelter, so someone will be gathering more information on that. Another person said she would look into ways to get more help from the local faith community for things that we need, such as items like peanut butter for the food pantry. Another person, who has been involved in Interfaith efforts elsewhere, will be gathering some information from them, so we can compare what we do to what they do.

We will probably hold our next planning meeting in August. Those who want to be part of the planning process should contact Mark Rondeau at markrondeau@earthlink.net.

• Though it did not get discussed much on June 10, Al Nelson brought up the idea of holding or sponsoring as an Interfaith Initiative some type of faith-based community event, particularly a Thanksgiving event. I agree. Though we did have some problems last year trying at the 11th hour to plan an Interfaith Thanksgiving service, that experience does not have to be the last word on the subject. I intend on bringing this up again in the near future. A prayer breakfast is another idea. This is something we will need the clergy to get behind.

• Another thing thrown into the mix of what the future might look like for the Interfaith Action Initiative is that the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition in conjunction with other community and state partners is looking to help create a substantial family support center in Northern Berkshire. The Interfaith Action Initiative may fit into this in one way or another, but right now it is not clear. Meetings on this organized by the Coalition will be happening in June and it certainly will be interesting and exciting to see how this unfolds.

• As I write this on June 10-11, the Friendship Center Food Pantry has been open for 14 weeks — 3-1/2 months. In the last four weeks, the number of households served has been 82, 80, 57 and 65. In general, numbers seem to go up at the end of the month — understandably as this is when household money runs out. We keep adding member households, and this week added 14 monre to bring our number to 328.

With temperatures rising greatly the first week of June, we have seen a need to revise some of our procedures. So we began to hand out bottles of water that Wednesday to our visiting friends and have started going out as a matter of procedure to give people the opportunity to sign up in the line that forms outside the Friendship Center during the first 45 minutes to an hour we’re open. On Wednesday, June 8, we handed out about 50 bottles of water.

• We continue to have wonderful volunteers. Many people stepped forward to help us in handling the nearly 8,000 lbs. of food we received in May from the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive. At times when we are very busy, I will look back from my spot at the front door and my heart will swell from seeing another familiar face — or one not so familiar — showing up yet again to serve our sisters and brothers in need.

As I suggested at the June 10 meeting, the awesome response and amount of dedicated interest from volunteers may be a sign from the Person Upstairs that we should not be afraid to use this volunteer-power to open one evening a week in addition to our current one late morning/early afternoon a week, from 11 to 2.

To help regularize and organize intake and utilization of volunteers, we have come up with a volunteer information form that Everyone involved with the pantry is filliing out. Among other things, it asks when people would be available to work!

• On the subject of the letter carrier food drive, we are still giving our the food from that. In fact, we have boxes of food stacked in the Friendship Center that we have brought over from our temporary storage site at 107 Main St. Everything left from the drive is now in our Center.

Yet, we have already run out of peanut butter and macaroni and cheese, and these are not items we are going to receive any time soon from our regular sources of food. Anyone with a donation of any size of these should contact me or anyone else connected with the Friendship Center Food Pantry. Or stop down at the Center at 43 Eagle St. on Wednesday when we’re in operation, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Thanks to the Berkshire Community Action Council, we now have three refrigeration units, and a grant from the Northern Berkshire United Way will allow us to purchase three more sets of chrome wire shelves for in back and a side room in the Friendship Center such as we are already using in the front. A chance discussion a couple of weeks ago with our friend and supporter Jack Gould led to this grant application.

• On June 6, Al Nelson and I had a great discussion at the Friendship Center with Spencer Moser, head of the Center for Service and Citizenship and the LEAD Academy at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

We discussed having the MCLA leadership program tour our facility on Monday, Aug. 8, with the incoming students in this program possibly doing some volunteer tasks later in the week. The Friendship Center would be one of the places the students would tour and possibly help out at. We may end up with some great volunteers as a result of this, especially as the Friendship Center is within walking distance of the college.

In addition, we may have the possibility of having one or more MCLA students available as volunteers each week as part of the Americorps program, which would pay students toward their college costs in exchange for volunteering. Moreover, if a student were found with a special interest in, say, nutrition, it might be possible for them to provide a nutrition workshop for those we serve.

Al and I will have more to say about this opportunity in upcoming Initiative meetings.

Would just like to add that, despite any obstacles and extra effort it might take, incorporating young people in what we do, including local high school students, is in my vision part of what we should be doing — if we are going to build a lasting Interfaith organization and pass along a home-grown ethic of service.

From a purely faith perspective, our example will show young people who have grown up on popular culture caricatures of people of strong faith, a quite different and more realistic picture of what real religion is about.

• Our continued thanks to Lois and Mike Daunis for letting us use their space at 43 Eagle St. Without them this would not be possible, and their concern for us and patience with us is beyond measure!

• Finally, the affordable housing discussion with the Boston-based Citizens Housing and Planning Association, which had to be cancelled in June, may be reschuled for the NB Interfaith Action Initiative meeting in September. Stay tuned, there will be plenty of advanced notice when the meeting on this important topic is officiallly rescheduled.

If you read all of this, thanks. And God Bless all of you,

Mark

Update on March 18 Interfaith Meeting

Friends,

We had a lively and moving meeting of about 10 people on Friday, March 18, at the First Baptist Church of North Adams, this despite five of our regular attendees being out of town or otherwise not able to attend.

Our guest at the meeting was Valerie Schwartz of the Berkshire Food Project and we touched on a number of ways our programs can assist each other. For one thing, Val and Kim McMann had Mark Lincourt and me on their local TV show later on Friday. The program aired on Sunday night on NBCTC Channel 15, and we were able to convey a lot of information about our effort. (It will be shown more times until a new show is recorded).

Valerie also has shelves available that we hope to be able to pick up on Friday and put into the back room of the Friendship Center. At Friday's meeting she also mentioned a possible source of food for us. For our part, we put up a flyer advertising the daily meals at the Berkshire Food Project at the First Congregational Church in North Adams and included the flyer in bags of food we gave out.

Another important item at the meeting concerned extending the Williamstown church voucher plan/fund throughout Northern Berkshire. I handed out a summary of the program written by Stuart Crampton, who

has spearheaded the exploration of ways of preserving and extending this program.

Our group discussion came to the conclusion that this is a worthy effort. We thought that it is a long-term project and an extended program may end up looking quite different than it currently does in Williamstown. There are many factors and possible complications to consider. The consensus of those present was that Stuart should go ahead and form a task force of interested people, do more research, and eventually come back to the wider Interfaith group with a proposal.

The idea for an expanded voucher system demonstrates that the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative is about more than just a food pantry.

Part of the future I envision for the NBIAI includes lobbying state and federal officials for adequate funding for necessary programs and working for interfaith tolerance and understanding. Religious intolerance — and ignorance — are major problems in our nation and world. Though we can be rightly grateful that we don’t have them in abundance here, who knows when they will become so? Our area has become more ethnically diverse over the years and will continue to do so.

Our group is an example of how people of different beliefs can work together for the common good.

The faith aspect

In addition, we want to preserve a strong faith aspect to our work, whatever that work turns out to be. On March 18 discussed maintaining a faith presence at the Center. We seemed to agree that bringing in our house of worship bulletins to make them available at the Friendship Center is a good way to preserve a faith presence and reach out to those who are curious as to what motivates us. We already have some of this literature down there, just not differentiated from the material we have for social services. I may just go ahead and buy a small rack we can put near the door to put them in. We already have some faith bulletins/literature a the center but it is currently mixed in with the social services information.

The next monthly meeting of the NBIAI will be held on April 15 at 10 a.m. at First Baptist Church of North Adams (use Eagle Street) entrance. All are welcome.

God Bless,

Mark

The Unhidden Agenda: Friday's Interfaith Meeting

Friends,

See below the agenda for tomorrow's (Friday, March 18) meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative. Below that is a summary of the history of the voucher system idea that has been active in Willliamstown and recent discussions about preserving and extending it. It was produced by Stuart Crampton, who has been doing fantastic work both for the food pantry effort but also on the voucher system. Copies of both the agenda and the statement will be available at tomorrow's meeting.

Hope to see you there,

Mark Rondeau

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NORTHERN BERKSHIRE INTERFAITH ACTION INITIATIVE

Meeting Friday, March 18, 10 a.m.

First Baptist Church of North Adams

1). Welcome/Introductions

2). Period of silent prayer.

3). Faith sharing.

4). a). Brief announcements b). Check on how many will be coming to Food Safety Workshop on Thursday.

5). Brief recollection on first month of Friendship Center and introudction of our guest for the meeting.

6). Discussion with Valerie Schwartz of the Berkshire Food Project and ways to help each other’s efforts.

7). Presentation of summary of work on voucher program. Brief discussion and suggestion that this be main topic of Aprii meeting.

8). More discussion of food pantry effort, including maintaining a faith aspect to it and having an interfaith open house.

9). Adjourn.

Next meeting: April 15 at 10 a.m. at First Baptist Church of North Adams.

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Extending the Williamstown Fund through North Berkshire

Until the Williamstown Ecumenical Association disbanded last winter, its Ministry Fund supported a voucher system for providing small amounts of one-time emergency assistance to transients and others coming to Williamstown houses of worship with emergency needs. People in need of emergency food, transportation or shelter who came to one of the houses of worship during business hours were issued vouchers that were honored by local vendors with whom agreements had been secured in advance. People who called a house of worship or clergy phone after hours were directed to the police Station, which could issue vouchers drawn on the Ministry Fund. Communication by telephone and email allowed the different churches to keep track of those served at other churches, very recently and over longer periods. The vendors included five restaurants, three grocery outlets, four motels, two gas stations and the Williams Inn bus station. Vouchers ranged form $20 or so for food up to $50 or so for a motel room. Most of the Williamstown houses of worship contributed annually according to their means, from $50 to a few hundred dollars per year. Some 60 - 70 vouchers were issued per year. The vouchers were submitted by vendors to the lay treasurer of the Ecumenical Association. At first, transients comprised about 2/3 of the clientele. Recently, the number of transients declined until most of the traffic is from local residents, many of whom were from NB towns other than Williamstown.

When the Ecumenical Association disbanded, its remaining funds, including the Ministry Fund,was distributed back to the participating churches. A few of the churches that have experienced the most emergency assistance requests have agreed among themselves to carry on at least through August 2011. In the meantime, they have suggested that a similar system might be more effective if expanded throughout North Berkshire, coordinated with other providers of various kinds of assistance to those in need. NBIAI has begun to investigate this idea and is planning to create a task force to take it up in more detail. Issues include expanded costs, sources of funds for an expanded system, rapid and effective communication, and administrative support. BCAC and nbCC have both offered to help if something useful materializes.

Stuart Crampton for the NBIAI