Catching up on All Sorts of News

Letter Carrier Food Drive Saturday, May 12

In the years since I started this blog at the urging of Al Bashevkin, retired executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, I don't think I have gone this long without posting. At any rate, there's a lot to catch up on.

First of all, as the flyer above indicates, Saturday, May 12, will be the annual Letter Carriers Food Drive. The information on this flyer comes from our friend Amanda Chilson of Mass In Motion. On the day of the drive, we will be sorting the donations at the former Sears store in the Steeple City Plaza. See file photo below.

We sort the food the letter carriers pick up in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida -- the same communities we serve as a food pantry.

We can always use volunteers. Let us know if you can help or just show up around 11:30 a.m. or so on the day of the drive.

Rich Davis at the former Sears space a few years ago. Volunteers will be sorting donated food there again this year on May 12. This is always a fun day. All are welcome to help out. Or just stop by and say "hi."

United Way to Recognize Al Nelson

Al wearing his light-up Patriots hat

We are very pleased to announce that our co-founder and co-director Al Nelson will be one of those recognized at the First Annual Spirit of Caring Awards and Celebration to be held on Thursday, May 17, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the MCLA Church Street Center. 

This event is being presented by the Northern Berkshire United Way. Al will be receiving the Spirit of Caring Award. Former North Adams Mayor Dick Alcombright, who did much to help the Friendship Center Food Pantry while in office, will receive the Spirit of Community Award, and Christine Hoyt of Adams will receive the Spirit of the Future Award.

Al is the conscience and personality of the NBIAI and the Friendship Center Food Pantry, perhaps the finest person I have ever met. I am looking forward to seeing him honored.

Individual tickets for this fundraiser are $50 each. RSVP by May 7. Northern Berkshire United Way, P.O. Box 955, North Adams, MA 01247. Phone: 413-663-9062. Email: pmessina@nbunitedway.org.

Al speaks to MCLA Lead Academy students in the early days of the Friendship Center

State. Rep. John Barrett III Visits Friendship Center

Our new Sate Rep. John Barrett III visited the Friendship Center Food Pantry recently. We had a productive discussion with him about the state's role in helping to meet food security needs in the state. 

This photo was taken by Kim McMann, director of the Berkshire Food Project, who attended the meeting. From right, counterclockwise, Michelle Geoffrey, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Rep. Barrett, James Swinchoski, MCLA senior and spring intern with us, and Al Nelson and Mark Rondeau, of the NBIAI/Friendship Center.

James, by the way, has been great to have around. He helped develop and conduct a survey for us of our food pantry friends and has worked on developing a website specifically for the Friendship Center!

North Berkshire Food Access Collaborative

The North Berkshire Food Access Collaborative held its second meeting on Friday, March 9, at the Green Space on Main Street in North Adams. More than 30 people attended. It was a very productive meeting and much interest was expressed by varied stakeholders from throughout Berkshire 

County in a Food Hub. What this would entail and mean has yet to be fully fleshed out but it could be quite exciting and many people are enthused about the idea.

The next quarterly meeting of the Collaborative will be on Friday, June 15. Stay tuned for more information.

Amanda Chilson speaks to part of those attending the March 9 meeting of the Collaborative. Below, the partial group discussion of a food hub generated much interest.

That's all for now. Thanks and God Bless,

Mark Rondeau

OUR FIRST TUESDAY ROUTINE

We pick up our food provided for us to distribute by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts every Tuesday. Most Tuesdays we wait until it is transported from the Food Bank in Hatfield to a depot at Berkshire Community Action on East Street in Pittsfield. Then we go down and get it in a rented truck.

(On the third Tuesday of the month, the Goodwill truck picks up the food for us, which we greatly appreciate.)

However, the first Tuesday of the month, we rent a bigger U-Haul truck and drive it the 50 miles to the Food Bank to pick up the food ourselves. Among other considerations, this allows us to take advantage of additional foods offered on site at the Food Bank.

Today, Tuesday, Jan. 3, was the first Tuesday of 2017 and so we rented a truck in North Adams and went to Hatfield. Most of the following photos were taken, and captioned by our great volunteer, Kevin Tyree, who drives our truck most weeks and helps out in many other ways.

(Kevin didn't want me to use his last name but everybody knows him and he deserves the recognition).

Kevin took a new driver, Terry, with him. When they came back to the Friendship Center, we had a substantial crew ready to help unload the truck and and stock the shelves -- something they do every week!

So, here are the photos:

At the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in rural Hatfield.

Inside the Food Bank

                A closeup of Mike unloading the truck.

                      The pallets of food are wrapped in plastic.

 I like this photo in particular, it shows the intensity of the work that goes into the unloading.

I like to just stand around and watch.

Another shot of our volunteers helping to stock the shelves, that's Jocelyn at the left by the refrigerator.


 In mid-February, the Friendship Center Food Pantry will observe its sixth birthday. We have been an all-volunteer organization the entire time. We have the greatest volunteers in the world.

God Bless,

Mark

Interfaith meeting continues food discussion on April 15

After a hiatus of several months, the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will hold a public meeting on Friday, April 15, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams Eagle Street Room.

We will continue the discussion of food insecurity, the topic of the April 8, Northern Berkshire Community Coalition Forum. Topics on April 15 likely will include recent trends we've seen at the Friendship Center Food Pantry, the upcoming Letter Carrier Food Drive on Saturday, May 14, better coordination of the work of area food programs, the efforts in which we're involved to return affordable food sales in some form to the former Price Chopper store on State Road in North Adams, the Massachusetts Food Trust, and possible innovations in distributing food from the Friendship Center.

All are welcome to attend. Our meeting begin with a time of silent prayer and optional faith sharing. For more information, call Mark at 413-664-0130.

At the Coalition forum, volunteers held signs showing the different levels of food insecurity. Below, Abby Getman of the Food Bank showed 2010 census results about North Adams. The more red the area, the more poverty. Northeastern North Adams was one of the most red areas.

This food insecurity discussion will be even more interesting after what happened at the Coalition forum on Friday. Having examined 2010 U.S. Census data, the four representatives of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts present said there is a significant number of unserved people in North Adams. They are looking to get more food into the city.

For me, this raises a number of questions, and I hope we can discuss this at our April 15 meeting. Without going into much detail here, I will note that the number of households the Friendship Center Food Pantry serves each week peaked in 2014 into early 2015, then leveled off. In 2016, the number of households served per week has slipped to a notable extent.

For our April Board of Directors meeting, I went through our records and compiled this interesting statistic: Average number of household visits for the first 14 weeks of the year: 2012: 114. 2013: 143. 2014: 140. 2015: 151. 2016: 139.

Why this decline? An improving economy? People moving out of the area? We really don’t know. This said, I am sure we are missing some people, particularly shut-ins. This is why in March we have formed a sub-committee of the Board of Directors to examine how we can better help the homeless and the question of home deliveries for shut-ins.

The number of households served at the Friendship Center Food Pantry rose constantly from its opening in February, 2011, reaching a peak in 2014 (green line) and early 2015 (orange line). Since then, numbers have leveled off and dropped even more in the first few months of 2016.

Research is needed. Is the 2010 census adequate to 2016? Does the city, which does a census by mail every year, have better numbers, at least for population? Do we need to be open another day of the week? Can the Food Bank’s mobile food pantry help?

Is the stigma against receiving help overly operative in the city? How can we — and other groups, such as the Berkshire Food Project and the  Dream Center — get more food to people?

Please come to our discussion on Friday and help us figure this out. And, of course, there are other related topics on the agenda, such as the May 14 letter carrier food drive, the effort to get affordable and healthy food sales back to Price Chopper and better cooperation between area food programs.

Thanks and God Bless,

Mark