Berkshire Bounty Fundraiser Responds to Community Need

11:10AM / Thursday, April 24, 2025Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Berkshire Bounty, a 501(c)(3) food recovery organization, will conduct a crowdfunding campaign from April 22 through April 29 to raise funds to address growing community need regarding food insecurity.

"Like many nonprofits in our community, Berkshire Bounty has been affected by cuts and fluctuations in federal funding," said Morgan Ovitsky, Executive Director of Berkshire Bounty. "We're also closely watching potential cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]. If enacted, the most vulnerable Berkshire County residents will be heavily impacted."

"Spring Into Action" will raise $75,000 for Berkshire Bounty. The Crowdfunding Campaign is the public facing portion in which Berkshire Bounty reaches out to supporters and asks for help in reaching that goal.

The Greater Boston Food Bank report indicated that the food insecurity rate in Berkshire County was at 45 percent. Berkshire Bounty has data from partner emergency food sites about increased use, particularly among people who are "working poor" and the immigrant community. Reporting data collected quarterly in 2024 from emergency food sites show a 30 percent increase in people accessing food assistance over the year. Projections and trends indicate the increase in food insecurity will continue to climb.

"Food pantries are serving more people than ever and struggling to procure enough to satisfy the demand. Berkshire Bounty receives calls daily for more food," stated Mark Lefenfeld and Jay Weintraub, Board members and co-founders of Berkshire Bounty. "We are so grateful to our community for their support."

Spring Into Action is aided by the Donald C. McGraw and Black Rock Foundations, offering a $20,000 dollar-to-dollar match.

"Our foundation and family are proud to support Berkshire Bounty as they prepare to provide extra support to our neighbors in a time of need," said Robin McGraw, Director of the Foundations.

Donations to the Crowdfunding Campaign can be made online on this dedicated page. For more information, or to inquire about making an online or offline donation, please contact Sara Haimowitz, Berkshire Bounty Director of Development, at sara@berkshirebounty.org.

Tags: food insecurity,

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Friperie Berkshires Moves to New Great Barrington Location

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:27PM / Tuesday, February 10, 2026

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Friperie Berkshires has moved to new quarters on Bridge Street and will reopen this Friday, Feb. 13.

Owner Elizabeth Conkey has relocated her store from Lee above the Berkshire Co-op at 34 Bridge St., in Suite 101.

The space is twice the size of her former spot in Lee, which is better for her, she said, because she needed it to add more services for her customers.

"I've been looking for a permanent space to land, and this space is perfect, because it's twice the size of where I was and I needed more room because I'm going to start doing men's and children's clothing as well," she said.

Besides adding more clothing, she will also be implementing a wardrobe service for her customers.

"In addition to just constantly stocking the store and finding treasures, I started offering a capsule wardrobe service," Conkey said. "So it has three tiers, and basically, people can hire me depending on what tier of offering they're interested in, and I will go and thrift specifically for them based on a mood board that they send me from Pinterest, or just a file folder of photos that they like."

Conkey kept the Lee storefront through the summer and had been renting a space in Great Barrington from a friend. She finally found her new space around New Year's, and will be launching a website.

She is excited to open just a short distance from where she was.

"I've really grown pretty exponentially in the past six months. I'm launching a website. I'm so thrilled with the growth. So it just seems like appropriate to finally move into the forever space, and have room to spread out and offer more categories of clothing," she said.

She also wanted to express her gratitude for her customers and friends' support to keep her dream alive.

"I am just so grateful to the people who have continued to shop in my store from the day it opened. Through the holidays, I had an incredible holiday season, and I just felt so grateful to everybody for telling their friends at my store, sharing about what they bought on Instagram, encouraging co-workers to come in," Conkey said. "It's been such a gift to feel welcomed by the community, and I feel like now my customers are becoming my friends, and I'm just excited to start this new chapter and never have to move all of this inventory ever again."

She will be open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. She encourages people to check her Instagram for updates on clothes and her store.

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