NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — More people are seeking food and warmth and social connectedness — and that's been reflected in the Berkshire Food Project's numbers.

 

The nonprofit's Executive Director Matthew Alcombright was asked to speak to the City Council on food insecurity by Councilor Andrew Fitch.

 

Alcombright came with hard numbers: There's been a 21 percent increase over last year in people availing themselves of the free lunch and a 52 percent jump in the last five or six weeks. Between September and October, it was 119 percent and Alcombright said at  361 new people have been coming in.

 

"The Berkshire food Project serves to provide a healthy, nutritious, homemade-from-scratch meal every single day of the week, Monday through Friday, 11:30 to 1, to the community at no cost, no questions asked," he said.

 

"To date, we have served 40,897 meals to this community, we have served 26,577 individuals this year, from January 2025, and the largest number is our increase in new faces. ... That number has seen an increase overall in the past five to six weeks of approximately 77 percent increase. So in total, this year, 361 new people have come to us for services."

 

For Thanksgiving eve, the project was doing double takeout meals was preparing almost 300 Thanksgiving dinners on top of what was served for its actual Thanksgiving dinner on Monday. It also provides meals to the Louison House, the Have Hope Recovery Center, the Roots Teen Center and UCP of Berkshire County, and has a delivery program of 50 meals three times of week with Northern Berkshire Transit.

 

Alcombright said the rise in numbers was indicative of homelessness, and the increasing need for safe spaces. Many of the guests coming into the dining don't eat, he said, they just want to be warm and put their heads down in a safe place to sleep.

 

"Food breaks down a lot of barriers. When we put a meal out, it's a lot of things come off the table, right? And so we're able to have a pretty open and honest conversations with people," he said.

 

That's become the objective of the project's community partnership program, in which representatives of local health and social service agencies are invited to sit down and have a meal with the other guests.

 

"The goal is not for them to table ... The goal is for them to eat lunch, and to dine with our guests and to create a safe relationship where a conversation can happen," he said. "It's easy to say, go check in at the Brien Center for a mental health referral. Most people won't do that."

 

The project is volunteer-driven, with 60 people on the waitlist. Alcombright said when a call goes out to fill a short staffed day, the response is almost immediate. These volunteers are the "heartbeat" of the project and make it possible to meet the needs of the community every day. 

 

The food program is also fueled by donations, monetary and otherwise, from local supermarkets, businesses and organizations, and supported by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. 

 

The project is feeling squeezed, not so much by the number of diners but the space to cook their meals. There's shelving along one wall of the dining room to store supplies and the kitchen has limited space for volunteers to work.

 

"The kitchen space itself is probably OK for about 100 to 120 meals being prepared, we're preparing about 250 every single day that are going out into this community," Alcombright said. "I met with the mayor regarding this and not looking for any quick fix. We know this is not a something that happens overnight but just to bring this awareness. I thank Councilor Fitch for ... inviting me to come here to this meeting tonight, just to let you know that we're there, and let you know what our needs are, what the realities are out in the community, and also just to invite you, please come. ...

 

"Our goal is to have you come and eat. That's all we want you to do, is to come and eat at the Berkshire Food Project and to build those relationships with the greater community."

 

In other business:

 

• Mayor Jennifer Macksey reported the appointments of City Assessor Ciera Dowling to the Board of Assessors, and John Treski and Robert Simons to the Commission on Disabilities,  terms to expire Dec. 31, 2028; and Julia Dixon to the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire for a term to expire Nov. 12, 2028.

 

The mayor also presented a proclamation in support of International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day on Nov. 22.

 

"I didn't want it to go without being said that it's just as hard as anything when you lose someone and you don't know how to figure it out," she said, adding at the end, if I may, President [Sapienza], I just ask that with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we also remember that to check in on our neighbors and our families and really appreciate what we have."

 

• Councilors Keith Bona and Peter Oleskiewicz were absent.