North Adams Food Pantry Moves, Ready for Annual Food Drive
 Ruby Scott, left, and Ashley Rice are volunteers at the Friendship Center Food Pantry in North Adams, which just moved into bigger quarters. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Northern Berkshire Friendship Center Food Pantry completed its move into larger quarters — just in time for Saturday's annual Letter Carriers Food Drive.
Last year's campaign collected 26,000 pounds of food in North Berkshire; organizers are hoping Saturday's drive will be just as successful. The food pantry on Eagle Street now has more room to accept those donations.
"We're usually piled on top of each other," said volunteer Ruby Scott on Friday. "This had made a tremendous difference. There's a lot more room for a lot more food."
The relocation wasn't far. The pantry had been operating out 43 Eagle St. since 2011; last Saturday, the group moved next door to 45 Eagle St., which had been the home of the New England Holocaust Institute since 2012. The museum is now looking at options in Adams.
The move increased the nonprofit's space by more than 40 percent, and includes a windowed waiting area and an enclosed vestibule. The open space has room for the line of refrigerators, four of which were recently purchased with a grant from Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, and shelves of dry goods.
"We've got a lot more room for people," said Mark Rondeau. "We pay for taxi rides and offer volunteer rides. Now they can wait and see when the taxi arrives. This gives us a lot more room for our guests and our friends."
Scott said the pantry is in some ways a community gathering spot and people like to stop and chat. That was problematic in the narrow 750 square feet in its former home. Bags were often piled up on the floor and people waited in the cold to get in.
"It was tight ... in the wintertime, people would come in and they were cold ... so this will make a tremendous difference in the winter," she said.
 |
Rondeau agreed: "There's a lot more flexibility and a lot more room for everybody."
The pantry serves an average of 150 families a week, down from 200-210, and families are allowed to come twice a month. A recent survey found that more than a quarter of those using the pantry did not get enough food in a given month and nearly 10 percent don't get enough every month.
The pantry is open on Wednesdays from 10 to 2 and from 4 to 6 to accommodate people who work.
"They can sign up at First Baptist Church. We're still doing that because we have a lot of associated services down there," Rondeau said. "We would need like 3,000 square feet with side offices to provide that [here]."
Volunteers are needed for Saturday's Letter Carrier Drive; last year, more than 60 people aided in the collection. The collection point will be the former Sleepy's in the L-shaped mall on Main Street. The drive also helps the Berkshire Food Project, the Dream Center, the Salvation Army in North Adams, the St. Patrick's Food Pantry and Community Bible Church in Williamstown and Louison House in Adams.
The pantry asks that those wishing to donate to the drive - or at any time - should consider healthy, low-fat and low-sodium foods including beans, tuna in water, peanut butter, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal and whole grain cereals, unsweetened applesauce and no-sugar-added fruits and cooking oils. The pantry can also use personal care items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, as well as coffee and pet food.
Tags: food drive, food pantry,
