Food Services Continue to Adjust; Fundraiser Set for Williamstown Pantry

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Al Nelson Friendship Center Food Pantry will continue to operate during the COVID-19 emergency, officials announced Thursday, a day after changing its pickup procedures for the first time as a result of the pandemic.

"We as a group are committed, in the time-honored fashion of North Adams and Northern Berkshire pulling together, to do our part to take care of each other," Mark Rondeau, co-founder and board president, said in a statement. "We have hope that after this crisis much better days are coming. Stay tuned."

The next pickup is Wednesday, March 25, from the center's 45 Eagle Street location. Social distancing procedures will be followed strictly. Updates will be posted to the group's website and Facebook page. 

In addition, the Berkshire Food Project — which typically serves lunch every day from the First Congregational Church on Main Street — is altering its procedures and will serve pre-packed meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Staff is prepping meals and packaging them for distribution, two meals at a time since they will not be there on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Friday's meal will consist of pasta with roasted vegetables, mac and cheese with a side of mixed vegetables, and ham on the side.

No seating will be allowed inside the church.

"The meals will be handed out at the breezeway entrance," the group's Facebook post reads. "Please do not go to the kitchen door — the meals at the breezeway will be accessible without stairs."

Updates will be posted on the organization's Facebook page.

"We have a conference call of board members and staff on Sunday afternoon to assess next week," Executive Director Kim McMann said Thursday. "We are taking it week by week. … Everything is changing so much so quickly."

And in an effort to bolster the stock of necessities available at the Williamstown Food Pantry, a "Drive for Change" will take place in a drive-through lane at the Williamstown Youth Center, 66 School St., on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, March 21-23, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Drivers will deposit their loose change (ideally, without getting out of their vehicles) into five-gallon collection buckets and circle back out of the parking lot.

All of funds raised will be distributed as donations of food and emergency supplies by the Williamstown Food Pantry to those most in need. Precautions are being taken to maintain social distancing.

People can also drop off donations anytime to the shelves in the front foyer of the Sts. Patrick and Raphael Parish Center.

The food pantry in Adams remains closed. The Mobile Food Bank operated by Food Bank of Western Massachusetts suspended its schedule but hopes to resume on Monday, March 23. 

Driscoll Marches in North Adams, Meets With Local Democrats

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:28PM / Monday, October 07, 2024

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll waves in the Fall Foliage Parade. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said she sees optimism and potential in the Steeple City after marching in Sunday's Fall Foliage Day Parade. 

 

Driscoll is the first sitting lieutenant governor to appear in the parade since Timothy Murray and his family back in 2007. She and Gov. Maura Healey were elected to four-year terms in 2022. 

 

"Absolutely picturesque to be able to see, you know, this time of year in this region, and then this parade, the history of it, like multiple generations of families on the sidelines, excited to either watch the parade or be in the parade, participate in it," said Driscoll at a fundraiser meetup at Hotel Downstreet hosted by the local town and city Democratic committees. "It's a perfect New England day, and I was glad to be a part of it."

 

Driscoll had traveled to Dalton in the morning to endorse Leigh Davis, the Democratic candidate for the Third Berkshire District. In North Adams, she made some brief remarks then mingled with the dozen or so attendees, including city councilors and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts President Jamie Birge, who hoped to bend her ear on relevant issues.

 

Driscoll said she was hearing "lots of enthusiasm for the work that's already happening here" including opportunities to leverage hospitality and tourism challenges around infrastructure and what the state could to support those efforts. 

 

She touched on the hopes for funding toward a public safety building and the city's two bridges — the closed Brown Street bridge and the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge. The memorial bridge, constructed as part of the Central Artery project in the 1960s, is being studied for reconstruction or removal under a federal grant with the goal of better connecting Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art to the downtown. 

 

"I think generally, people are really optimistic about the possibilities that exist here in leveraging off of the things that are already working well, whether it's a university or a cultural asset like Mass MoCA, or a downtown that's beautiful, that has some some rough patches that need to be prettied up, like, how can we work together to accomplish that?" the lieutenant governor said.