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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15 People Displaced in Pittsfield Home Fires

Staff Reports

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Fifteen people were displaced after 2-alarm home fires this weekend on Springside Avenue and Elaine Drive. 

On Friday evening, the Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 209 Springside Ave., which took a four-hour battle to extinguish and resulted in a partial roof collapse. The next day, on Saturday evening, crews knocked down a fire at 121 Elaine Drive in about an hour. 

The garage and part of the single-family home on Elaine Drive were gutted to the frame, along with a vehicle parked in the driveway. On Springside Avenue, the top level and porch of the multifamily were burned through.  

A GoFundMe has been started for the family of the Elaine Drive home, which includes several young children.  The fundraiser, with a $5,500 goal, explains they lost their home and all of their belongings. (iBerkshires.com does not confirm or endorse fundraisers; they are provided as information only.)

There were no civilian or firefighter injuries, and both incidents are under investigation.  One dog was rescued on Springside Avenue. 

On Oct. 10, around 6:15 p.m., PFD responded to the Springside Avenue home for a reported structure fire and saw a 2 1/2-story wood frame multifamily with a heavy blaze showing from the second-floor front porch, extending out. 

The building suffered a partial roof collapse, which prolonged extinguishment. The fire was brought under control after about four hours.

“An aggressive offensive attack was mounted by first arriving crews stretching hose lines into the building as well as primary searches that proved negative. Ladders were placed around the structure to provide access as well as escape if needed. An off-duty Fire Captain had also been on scene early in the incident to help evacuate the structure and rescue a dog,” PFD wrote in a press release. 

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