Pittsfield Public Schools Anticipate Serving 1,000 Bagged Meals

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Public Schools is offering "grab-and-go" breakfast and lunches from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every weekday while school is out.
 
"We are grateful to our Food Service team and Transportation Team for making this happen," Superintendent Jason "Jake" McCandless said in an email exchange.
 
McCandless said they have had between 220 and 300 or so users per day.
 
He believed that the system will "eclipse" 1,000 meals served on Thursday. The school system has 12 schools and more than 5,000 students enrolled.
 
The school system instituted the lunch program within days of deciding to close schools for two weeks in conjunction with school districts across the Berkshires because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. This past week the state ordered schools closed for an additional week with an anticipated reopening on April 6.
 
Additional community breakfast and lunches have been set up at Morningside Community School, Conte Community School, Dower Square Housing Village, the Berkshire Family YMCA, Gladys Brigham Center, Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires, and the Brattlebrook and Berkshire Peak apartment complexes.
 
"We are hoping to add one more on Monday as we identify areas of need," McCandless said.
 
 

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North Adams Regional Reopens With Ribbon-Cutting Celebration

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz welcomes the gathering to the celebration of the hospital's reopening 10 years to the day it closed. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The joyful celebration on Thursday at North Adams Regional Hospital was a far cry from the scene 10 years ago when protests and tears marked the facility's closing
 
Hospital officials, local leaders, medical staff, residents and elected officials gathered under a tent on the campus to mark the efforts over the past decade to restore NARH and cut the ribbon officially reopening the 136-year-old medical center. 
 
"This hospital under previous ownership closed its doors. It was a day that was full of tears, anger and fear in the Northern Berkshire community about where and how residents would be able to receive what should be a fundamental right for everyone — access to health care," said Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years. It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated county wide system of care." 
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and closed on March 28, 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC was able to reopen the ER as an emergency satellite facility and slowly restored and enhanced medical services including outpatient surgery, imaging, dialysis, pharmacy and physician services. 
 
But it would take a slight tweak in the U.S. Health and Human Services' regulations — thank to U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — to bring back inpatient beds and resurrect North Adams Regional Hospital 
 
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