Greylock Federal Awards Special Grants to Local Food Pantries

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(left to right) Rachel Mabee, Vice President, Culture & Brand at Greylock; Cindy Shogry-Raimer, Vice President, Director of Community Development at Greylock; Katelynn Miner, Founder & Executive Director at Berkshire Dream Center; and Jamie Moncecchi, Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer at Greylock.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Greylock Federal Credit Union has allocated a special $50,000 donation to support local food pantries.
 
Recipients include Berkshire Bounty, Berkshire Food Project, Berkshire Community College (BCC) Campus Cupboard, Berkshire Dream Center, People's Pantry and Pittsfield Community Food Pantry.
 
"Food is a basic need that we all share. That's why our board and senior leaders wanted to allocate a special contribution to support the work of our local food pantries. It's our hope that this funding will help to ease the strain and allow more families and individuals in our communities to access the resources that they need," said Jamie Moncecchi, Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer.
 
This donation comes in the wake of Greylock's recent allocation of $100,000 to 10 nonprofit community partners whose missions focus on a range of human services.
 
Berkshire Bounty, BCC's Campus Cupboard and People's Pantry all focus on distribution of rescued, locally sourced and donated foods. Other selected organizations help to alleviate social isolation through varied meal offerings. Berkshire Food Project serves hot meals five days a week, and Pittsfield Community Food Pantry offers grab-and-go meals from their food pantry kitchen. Berkshire Dream Center has a restaurant-style soup kitchen, as well as market and mobile food pantry.
 
"At a time when needs are increasing across our community, this gift was nothing short of a miracle. Our partnership with Greylock is not just support—it's a shared vision and truly foundational to the work happening at the Berkshire Dream Center. This investment came at a critical moment, helping us meet the growing demand we're seeing across the Morningside community and throughout Berkshire County," said Katelynn Miner, Founder & Executive Director for Berkshire Dream Center.
 
"It's partnerships like this that remind us we're not doing this alone and make it possible for us to keep showing up, serving others, restoring hope, rebuilding lives and helping others realize their dreams," said Miner. "Everyone deserves to dream again, and we are so thankful to Greylock for helping others begin to dream again with us!"
 
The collective impact of the six organizations is significant in the lives of community members. Pittsfield Community Food Pantry delivers to 500 families each week, and the Berkshire Food Project prepares 200 meals a day. According to 2024 impact reports on their websites, Berkshire Bounty collected 621,000 pounds of food to serve 16,080 people, and the Berkshire Dream Center served 15,568 people. In 2025, People's Pantry stocked 33,000 fridges with eggs.
 
"I am so grateful to receive this grant from Greylock. The Berkshire Food Project has recently experienced an increase in numbers similar to last fall," said Matthew Alcombright, MDiv., Executive Director at Berkshire Food Project.
"We rely on community support and sponsorship to continue our 40-year tradition of providing a no-cost, no-questions-asked, homemade-from-scratch lunch, five days a week to combat food insecurity and social isolation in our community. This grant will certainly be put to good and prudent use. BFP is so fortunate to have Greylock Federal as one of our close community partners and cannot thank them enough for helping to carry out our mission in a dignified and professional manner," Alcombright said.

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Pittsfield Council Reviews Public Safety Budget, Keeps SpotShotter

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On the fourth day of budget deliberations, the City Council preliminarily approved public safety and public service budgets. 

See the first two days of budget review here; and the third day here.

Councilors deliberated the Pittsfield Police Department's $16,439,421 spending plan for more than 90 minutes. Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren unsuccessfully motioned to cut $220,000 for ShotSpotter services. 

He said the acoustic gunshot detection technology is not well used throughout the country, citing other communities that have opted out or are exploring it. 

Pittsfield has two more years on its contract; while councilors voted down the budget reduction several were willing to explore the impact data and see if those funds could be used elsewhere. 

Police Chief Marc Maddalena reported that there has been a significant decrease in shots fired calls, and attributed it to the surveillance technology assisting enforcement. He said it also comes in faster than 911 calls. 

"If people know that just by that noise alone that we're responding within seconds, that's preventing them from utilizing that weapon," he said. 

"So that in of itself is saving lives." 

It has an about 20 percent accuracy rate, and police respond to every activation. 

On Sunday, at least two homes in the area of Memorial Drive and Doyle Drive were struck by gunfire and investigators located 17 shell casings on scene. This was brought up during conversation; it was reported that there were 13 impulses on ShotSpotter during the incident. 

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