Catching up on some news

Friends,

It's been a while since I've had the time to post any new developments with the Interfaith Action Initiative. Several great things have happened and several great things are coming up.

Letter Carrier Food Drive Saturday 

First, on Saturday, May 11, volunteers will gather at 107 Main Street in North Adams around noon to help sort all the food that will be collected by North Adams area letter carriers as part of the 2013 Letter Carriers Food. Come on down if you feel like helping out. 107 Main is an empty store front on the west side of the intersection of Eagle and Main Streets. This will be the third year that volunteers from the Friendship Center will sort the food.

The food drive was the topic of the May edition of the public access cable television program "In the Company of Friends" on Channel 15. We welcomed letter carrier Gary Ghidotti, North Adams Postmaster Joan Beck, Amanda Chilson of the Mass in Motion program, and Amber Besaw of The Family Place. The program, co-hosted by Mark Lincourt and Mark Rondeau, is shown on Channel 15 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and Mondays at 1 p.m.

The NBIAI and Mass in Motion cooperated to produce nice green canvas bags for people to put their donated food into — they both hold more and will be easier for the carriers to handle. Many were made available at St. Elizabeth Church, for instance, and were quickly snapped up. Mine already is full (photo) and ready to put on top of the park mailboxes Saturday morning. These are nice bags. Now let's see if they come back to us filled with food!

God willing, there will be plenty of photos from the Letter Carriers Food Drive toting and sorting operation in this space next week.

CROP Walk discussed at May Interfaith meeting

The next meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative (NBIAI) will be held on Friday, May 17, at 10 a.m. in the Eagle Street room of the First Baptist Church of North Adams. All are welcome.

At the meeting, we will start planning to hold a Northern Berkshire CROP Walk in the fall; we will critique our handling of our end of the Letter Carriers Food Drive; and we will continue our discussion of transportation of food to people and people to food. The meeting will begin with our usual time of silent prayer, faith sharing, and announcements.

April Interfaith Meeting well-attended

On Friday, April 19, some 23 people attended our “food summit” meeting, at which among other things we discussed preparations for the Saturday, May 11, Letter Carrier Food Drive in Northern Berkshire. Above, Bryce Babcock, of the Williamstown Community Church food pantry program, and letter carrier Dick Dassatti.

Amanda Chilson, of Mass in Motion (foreground), Kathy Keeser of Hoosac Harvest, and Michelle Sylvester of WIC attend the April NBIAI "food summit."

 

Food Bank Director Visits Friendship Center

On Wednesday, April 17, the Friendship Center Food Pantry welcomed Andrew Morehouse, executive director of the Food Bank of Western Mass., located in Hatfield, (above right, with Stuart Crampton and Mark Lincourt, in the Eagle Street room at First Baptist Church, where we are checking people in these days) to see us in operation. He seemed very impressed, particularly by the large number of volunteers we had during our morning session! Below, he talks with Tony Pisano (at counter) in the Friendship Center Food Pantry itself.

Friendship Center takes part in Eagle Street Rising

On Friday, April 26, we were pleased to be present at the North Adams Public Library when two of our great volunteers, Fran Berasi and Rich Davis, graduated from the Coalition’s Community Outreach Worker program. The next day, the Friendship Center held an open house during MCLA’s Eagle Street Rising makeover of that venerable street.

We raised more than $45 in donations — mostly proceeds from the organizers generously arranged to be donated to us from the sale of coffee and donuts — gave several tours, were interviewed for both a newspaper (the MCLA Beacon) and a film documentary, and signed up two new volunteers. A productive three hours! 

Mayor Dick Alcombright, left, talks with Joe and Carol Manning, of Northampton. Joe is a great friend of mine who has written the classic books about North Adams "Steeples" and "Disappearing Into North Adams." Below, Jennifer Munoz takes a couple of the special food drive canvas bags while Bert Lamb looks on.

Two Groups We Love

I do not have nearly enough time to detail here all that our friends at the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition have done for us in the three years of our existence. In fact, we owe our very existence to the Coalition, for we grew out of a Coalition monthly meeting on faith and the community. Now, on Tuesday, June 4, the Coalition at its 2013 Annual Meeting will honor the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative with its Hero Award. The event will be held at the Williams Inn in Williamstown. It will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.nbccoalition.org or call 663-7588.

The other group is the Berkshire Food Project that feeds those in need daily meals at the First Congregational Church of North Adams, serving many of the same people we see regularly at the Friendship Center Food Pantry. To see how to make a donation to support the BFP's work, visit  http://www.gofundme.com/2lk9zc 

Some Young Friends Visit

And finally, we were pleased to welcome in early April North Adams Girl Scout Troop 11097, which delivered 56 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the Friendship Center Food Pantry. Thanks!

Thanks for reading this, and God Bless all of you,

Mark Rondeau

MLK Day, Peacemaker, Friday's IAI Meeting

Mark Lincourt at the Friendship Center on the morning of MLK Day talking to our visitors from Americorps Vista. Joyce Lincourt is at the left in the photo. One of the volunteers is taking a photo of Mark. More photos can be found at the end of this blog entry.

Friends,

Monday, Jan. 16, was the 19th Annual Northern Berkshire Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration, and the third year that it was a day of service.

When I first arrived at the Friendship Center mid-morning on Monday, Mark Lincourt, our food distribution coordinator, who would recieve the Peacemaker Award at lunch later in the day, and Stuart Crampton, treasurer, were already there stocking the shelves with food. Helping were Americorps Vista workers connected, I think with, Berkshire Community College. Mark’s wife, Joyce, was there later on, followed by Darlene Elliis and her daughter, who donated some food, and Kathy Keeser. Darlene and Kathy are members of the MLK Committee.

I was pleased that State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, of North Adams, also helped sort food and stock shelves in the pantry.

By the time of dinner and the award at St. Elizabeth Parish Center, we had weighed more than 700 lbs of donated food and had accumulated cash donations also. By the time all is said, lifted and weighed, the Friendship Center probably be the recipient of more than 1,000 lbs of donated food.

And thanks to all who donated, either to 107 Main St. in North Adams or those who did so through local houses of worship. I know my church, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, donated at least a couple hundred pounds of food.

Here is the writeup about Mark in the 2012 MLK Day of Service program. The ceremony was moving and Mark’s remarks, which I did not record, were excellent. I’m sure the ceremony will be shown several times in the near future on Northern Berkshire Community Access Televsion.

Mark Lincourt

Mark Lincourt exemplifies service in the model of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and shares with him a significant desire to see to the needs of others. This is illustrated in his work with many groups: his church, All Saints Episcopal Church; the Higher Ground Committee; the Northern Berkshire Systems of Care Committee; the Continuum of Care Committee in Pittsfield; and the Servant Leader Advisory Board at St. Stephen’s in Pittsfield. These activities have involved Mark with issues of homelessness, housing for people in need, and support for families of children suffering severe emotional disturbances.

Beyond all of this, however, is Mark’s central involvement in seeing to the food needs of people in this region. At the simplest level, he participates in the Take and Eat food project through All Saints Church, helping to provide a hot meal to seniors one Sunday a month. More significantly, as a founding member of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative, Mark stepped forward to become the Food Service Coordinator for the Friendship Center Food Pantry when the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative established that organization a year ago.

Mark’s volunteer efforts for the food pantry make him a nearly fulltime worker as he oversees all that needs to be done to ensure that the pantry and its many volunteers are able to assure famllies in need that they will not go hungry. Mark does all of this without complaint but with the energy provided by the knowledge that there are people in need and he is in a positon to help.

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Don’t forget Friday’s meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative. Here is the announcement I sent out:

Affordable Assisted Living is Jan. 20 Interfaith meeting topic

NORTH ADAMS — The Friday, Jan. 20, meeting of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative will feature a discussion of affordable assisted living.

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. the First Baptist Church of North Adams (use Eagle Street entrance). All are welcome to attend.

Ce Swanson, RN, program manager at North Adams Adult Day Health, has assembled a panel to help us discuss the issue, including the heads of the Adams, North Adams and Williamstown Councils on Aging and a representative of Elder Services. Affordable assisted living is one piece of the affordable housing issue which has come to fore locally in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

The Interfaith Action Initiative is group of people from various faiths and denominations working with others of  good will to find ways to serve our community. Among its projects is The Friendship Center Food Pantry at 43 Eagle St. in North Adams.

For more information, call Mark at 664-0130 or visit our blog at http://northernberkshireinterfaith.blogspot.com or like the Friendship Center’s page on Facebook.

Thanks and God Bless. Hope to see you Friday!

Mark Rondeau

Our helpers from Americorps pose for a photo by Kathy Keeser, of the MLK Committee.

Mark Lincourt, North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright and Sue Walker. Both the mayor and Sue — who is one of our great Friendship Center volunteers and Initiative members — had moving things to say about Mark.

Mark gets ready to say a few words upon receiving the award. Around him are Darlene Ellis, Mayor Alcombright, Sue Walker, MLK Committee Chairman Alex Daugherty, and Kathy Keeser.