BAV Launches Market Match Fund Campaign for 2024

08:01AM / Friday, April 12, 2024Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Berkshire Agricultural Ventures(BAV) kicked off its 2024 Market Match Fund campaign with a goal of raising $30,000 during the month of April to increase sales for local farmers and make fresh food more available to low-income households in the Berkshire region.

Thanks to a donor, the first $10,000 raised in the campaign will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

This year's theme of "Boost SNAP, Build Community" recognizes the positive difference that SNAP matching makes in a community by addressing issues of food insecurity and food access—while also supporting the sales, and livelihoods, of local farmers.

Now in its third year, BAV's Market Match Fund is amplifying the impact of SNAP matching at Berkshire-area farmers markets by providing reliable funds to fully support Market Match programs. This centralized funding source enables partner farmers markets across the region to consistently offer a $1-to-$1 SNAP match up to $30, giving SNAP customers a total of $60 to spend on fresh food grown and produced by local farmers.

To date, BAV's Market Match Fund has supported over $370,000 in SNAP sales for local farmers and doubled well over 8,000 SNAP purchases at 11 farmers markets in the region.

Partner farmers markets that have benefited include: North Adams, Williamstown, Pittsfield, West Stockbridge, Lee, Great Barrington, Sheffield, and Berkshire Grown Winter Farmers Markets; Millerton and New Lebanon, NY; and New Milford, Conn.

"BAV's Market Match Fund is such a win-win for local farmers and low-income households in our community. It supports greater sales for our farmers and increases food security and food access for our neighbors," said Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Executive Director Rebecca Busansky. "BAV is so grateful to the many individuals and businesses in our community who have stepped up and supported this effort since we began our pilot program in 2022. Our farmers markets, local food economy, and community as a whole are stronger as a result."

Tags: farming, SNAP,

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First Eagle Mill Units in Lee to Open in Springtime

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:02AM / Tuesday, February 03, 2026

Eagle Mills developer Jeffrey Cohen updates the Lee Chamber of Commerce as the project's phases, and the amount of heavy lifting to get it to this point.

LEE, Mass. — More than 50 affordable units are expected to come online at the Eagle Mill this spring.

This is the first of several planned development phases at the former paper mill that dates back to the early 1800s, totaling more than 200 units. The Lee Chamber of Commerce hosted an information session on the project during its Business Breakfast last Wednesday.

"We are here because we have a really big project that's happened for a very long time here in Lee, that, for myself, has provided a real sense of hope, and has has really defined this community as one of the few in the Berkshires that's really looking forward, as opposed to just being sort of stuck in the past," Chamber member Erik Williams said.

The estimated $60 million development broke ground in 2021 after nearly a decade of planning and permitting. Hundreds of workers once filed into the 8-acre complex, producing up to 165 tons of paper a week. The last mill on the property closed in 2008.

Hearthway is accepting applications for 56 affordable apartments called "The Lofts at Eagle Mill" with expected occupancy in May. The housing nonprofit was also approved for 45 additional units of new construction on the site.

Jeffrey Cohen of Eagle Mill Redevelopment LLC said the project dates back to 2012, when a purchase contract was signed for the West Center Street property. The developers didn't have to close on the property until renovation plans were approved in 2017, and the mill was sold for $700,000.

It seemed like a great deal for the structure and eight acres on the Housatonic River, Cohen explained, but he wasn't aware of the complex pre-development costs, state, and local approvals it would entail. Seven individually owned homes adjacent to the property were also acquired and demolished for parking and site access.

"If I knew today what I knew then, I'm not sure we'd be sitting here," he said, joining the breakfast remotely over Zoom.

Cohen praised the town's government, explaining that the redesigns and critiques "Could not have been done in a friendlier way, in a more helpful way," and the two Massachusetts governors serving during the project's tenure. The Eagle Mill redevelopment is supported by state and federal grants, as well as low-income housing tax credits.

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