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The cold storage will be located at the North Adams Campus of Berkshire Medical Center.

Berkshire Bounty Opens North County Cold Storage at BMC North

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Berkshire Bounty opened new cold storage units at the North Adams Campus of Berkshire Medical Center in a collaboration with Berkshire Health Systems.
 
This project, funded by the state through the Food Security Infrastructure Grant (FSIG) program, is part of a countywide effort to strengthen the local and regional food system through a collaborative effort, which will expand local food production, storage and delivery systems that bring fresh and healthy locally grown food to the food insecure community.
 
"Berkshire Bounty works closely with Berkshire Grown and several other community organizations to implement a robust, resilient layer within the regional food system that provides an essential link between farmers and food access organizations and moves healthy food from farm to table. We have proven this system is sustainable and can withstand ongoing food system challenges. This cold storage facility is a necessary component to addressing food system gaps in North Berkshire County," states Morgan Ovitsky, Executive Director of Berkshire Bounty, a 501(c)3 food rescue organization.
 
A cold storage facility will act as a depot for local farmers to deliver meat, dairy, eggs and produce to a central location where it will be aggregated, stored, and delivered to participating food distribution organization partners in North Adams, Adams, Williamstown and surrounding towns. This project will also provide safe cold storage for North Berkshire food distribution sites in desperate need of additional storage for fresh, healthy products.
 
"Our pantry is small and has no more additional space for refrigeration. We welcome the option of overflow storage to increase our capacity to distribute more food to our friends in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida." said Fran Berasi, Vice President of the Al Nelson Friendship Center Food Pantry.
                                          
The location of the facility, behind the North Adams campus of Berkshire Medical Center, is through a partnership with BHS to provide a secure source of power and safe access. BHS is hosting and providing the cost of powering the storage units.
 
"Food security is a major health challenge that impacts families in North Berkshire and across the region," said Darlene Rodowicz, President and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. "At BHS, we know that much of a person's overall health is impacted by conditions that exist beyond the four walls of a healthcare facility-- like their availability to access nutritious food or safe, affordable housing.  We are thrilled to be able to partner with Berkshire Bounty as part of our mission to advance health and wellness of everyone in our community by helping to create this new food storage location that will expand access to fresh, healthy food for residents of North County."
 
 
 

Tags: BHS,   BMC,   food bank,   

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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

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