GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Wheeler & Taylor Insurance of Great Barrington and Canary Blomstrom Insurance Agency of Agawam provided support to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
Two rounds of funding will pay for about 100,000 meals for hungry residents of Western Massachusetts. The Food Bank will receive one round of funding now an another in the spring.
"We’re so grateful to Wheeler & Taylor and Canary Blomstrom for their social investment in The Food Bank’s mission to feed our neighbors in need at this critical moment," Executive Director Andrew Morehouse said. "With this support, overall we’ll be able to provide 100,000 meals to households struggling to make ends meet and put healthy food on the table."
Wheeler & Taylor and Canary Blomstrom are members of GoodWorks Financial Group, a network of common-ownership insurance, real estate and financial firms.
"Thanks to The Food Bank, thousands of people in the region are able to get enough to eat every day," Wheeler & Taylor Insurance president J. Scott Rote said. "In this time of unprecedented need, our communities need unprecedented support, and we’re glad to do our part."
With the pandemic, demand for food has grown exponentially. The Food Bank is serving 109,500 people a month in 2020, up 16 percent from 2019. The organization has distributed 11.1 million pounds of food from March through October, a 30 percent increase. It estimates that about one in six residents in the region, including 40,000 children, or one in four, are food-insecure.
"It couldn’t be a worse year, more heartbreaking year, for many folks. I’m glad to know the grants will support food programs in our local area as well as regionally," Sandy Brodeur, president of Canary Blomstrom said.
Based in Hatfield, The Food Bank provides food to hundreds of member food pantries, shelters and meal sites in Western Massachusetts.
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Remembering the 'Forgotten War' in Pittsfield
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
The bell is rung as the name of each local casualty of the war is read.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A small group gathered at City Hall's "Forgotten War" monument on Saturday to honor those who had served.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 448 held its annual ceremony at the Korean War Monument to mark the 73rd anniversary of the armistice that saw the fighting end in Korea. The 2002 monument names 20 Pittsfield residents who were killed in action.
"Today, on behalf of the brave men to which their names appear on this monument, and to 36,516 that lost their lives in the Korean conflict, and the 1,243 that lost their lives thereafter, often referred to as the Second Forgotten War, or the DMZ Wars, and to many others that have served their countries without recognition, and to those still serving, we wish to honor them all in appreciation of their sacrifice and contributions towards the preservation of our freedoms and values of the United States of America and its allies," said post Cmdr. Arnie Perras, saying there are still many people unaware of what happened in that overseas war.
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea after border conflicts and insurrections in the south. Hostile action ended unofficially on July 27, 1953, in a truce. During the war, more than 23,000 American troops were killed in action, and 100,000 were injured. South Korea lost more than 200,000 soldiers, more than 13,000 other allied troops were killed, and nearly 3 million civilian and military lives were lost on both sides.
A peace treaty was never signed and a demilitarized zone has separated the two nations since.
An armistice was signed, but Perras reminded attendees that this didn't end the war, relaying thousands of reported military engagements inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone between 1954 and 1999.
Perras outlined actions that occurred during the ceasefire, such as the DMZ Wars, especially active in the 1960s, when many U.S. and Korean soldiers were killed in ambushes, firefights, and minefields. In 2010, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean corvette submarine, killing 46 people.
Today, the United States has about 28,500 troops deployed in South Korea, mostly at the Army station at Camp Humphreys.
"Although it has been decades since major hostilities, U.S. troops remain as a deterrent to the nuclear-armed and often belligerent North Korea."
The monument — dedicated on Veterans Day in 2002 — honors the 20 servicemen who were killed during the war with a time capsule buried beneath, including dog tags, a small P38 military can opener, military patches, and a DVD from a one-hour fundraiser televised on Pittsfield Community Television.
A bell was sounded after each name was read aloud.
Perras is the last living member of the Korean War Monument Committee and closed the event with a wish for new members to continue the veteran organizations' charge.
"I'm the last man standing, and I can barely do that. We really need our younger veterans to help us out by joining soon to carry our torch forward. As a huge incentive, the VFW Post 448 is still offering a five-year free membership to new members. Otherwise, you'll no longer be seeing these type of ceremonies, unfortunately," he said.
Mayor Peter MArchetti along with City Councilor Pete White were also in attendance to honor the fallen.
"I think it's important to be here today. We remember the brave men and women who served in the war, and every service member that sacrificed their life for this It's our job to make sure that they're not forgotten and that they're honored for defending our nation and protecting our freedoms, they went to war, protecting people that they never met and never knew. It's important for us to remember them, not just for that war, but for all wars," Marchetti said.
The names of Pittsfield residents who were killed in the war:
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