PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There were four volunteer initiatives for the Berkshire Community College Day of Service: crafting Valentine's Day cards for Hillcrest residents, office organization with Western Mass Labor Action, cleaning the Harvest Table (a local food pantry and meal site), and sorting clothing and toy donations with the Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center, in partnership with Berkshire United Way. 

 

The Harvest Table is run by First United Methodist Church, located at 55 Fenn St., where the day's opening breakfast was held. It serves approximately 300 people every week. The pantry offers a hot breakfast every Tuesday from 8 to 9:30 and dinner from 3:30 to 5:30, said Pamela Wall, the church's food program manager.

 

Wall also took the opportunity to highlight that the pantry needs Spanish-speaking volunteers every Tuesday from 3:30 to 5:30 because 70 percent of its clientele are Spanish-speaking.

 

"Some of them do not speak English at all, and a lot of them can't read, so to communicate with them is difficult unless we have an actual person that can speak Spanish," she said. 

 

"The apps work fine for people who can read, but the ones that can't read, can't read the apps." 

 

At the Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center auditorium, volunteers sorted shoes clothing, toys, and books for the Discover the Eureka! Family Day and toy store. This is the center's third year hosting a free store. 

 

"It's a free event for the community volunteer staffed by girls who are in our Eureka! program, which is our teen girls that are in a STEM and career readiness program to help encourage them to give back to their community, while also pursuing careers, whether it's stem or whatever makes them feel empowered," Development and Communications Manager Abigail Allard said. 

 

"We also have our Discovery leadership girls here. Those are our younger girls, those are our 9 through 11-year-olds, and their programming is all about building the skills to make them good leaders in their community." 

 

This year, the girls took over a lot of the planning for the event. 

 

"Our goal is to be open as often as possible to help support the families that we work with," Allard said. 

 

"So it's very rare that we have a day where the building is closed that we can run a program like this and then I love that even when the building is closed, we're still trying to give back to the community." 

 

Berkshire Health Systems, the Berkshire County Sheriff's Department, the Berkshire Immigrant Center, the Berkshire Diaper Project, and Berkshire Pediatrics had tables at the free store.