Pittsfield Mayor Peter Marchetti and state Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Leigh Davis host a roundtable with Health & Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah and local food providers on Tuesday.

The gathering discussed the region's food security, local needs and the collaborative efforts being taken.

Tuesday was delivery day with volunteers bagging up food for pickup.

The pantry saw an increase of 1,000 more people seeking food in the last month.

Representatives from local organizations pose with the secretary, the mayor and state representatives.

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Health & Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah gets a tour of the Pittsfield Community Food Pantry on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Local food providers told the state's health and human services secretary how they are meeting the growing threat of food insecurity during a visit to the Pittsfield Community Food Pantry. 

On Tuesday, local officials gathered with Health & Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah at the food pantry for a tour and a discussion on food security. The secretary later traveled to North Adams to visit the Berkshire Food Project and North Adams Regional Hospital.

"This past month, we served 1,000 more individuals than the month prior, so we can see the need and the anxiety with our attendance," Susan Kaufman, secretary of the pantry's board, reported. 

Mahaniah was impressed by the strength of local efforts, but saddened that they were needed. He explained that he did not grow up in the United States, but "It's always been amazing to me that part of the American culture is being obsessed with who deserves food versus who doesn't. I think it's so weird that we control it so tightly." 

"I don't think I realized to what extent local communities are doing their own efforts, in addition to whatever money is coming from the regional food bank," Mahaniah said. 

"I was just impressed by the number of people you need to run this operation." 

He visited the Pittsfield Community Food Pantry on a delivery day, when volunteers were buzzing around the assembly room, filling bags with different grocery staples. The pantry has about 150 regular volunteers, and thousands who work on the Thanksgiving Angels holiday food distribution. 

There are 14 food pantries just in Pittsfield. 

Executive Director of Berkshire Bounty Morgan Ovitsky said her organization is on track to deliver 700,000 pounds of food this year. Berkshire Bounty is a food rescue organization that collects donated food from 25 retail sites and delivers it to 32 food pantries across the county. 

The nonprofit currently serves 21,000 individuals per week and has seen a steady increase in need since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We're concerned about the growing number of people that are experiencing barriers to accessing food pantries. That's our bread and butter. We're bringing more food to food pantries so that they can serve more people, but there's a whole portion of the population that is not able to get to the food pantry network, and that's primarily because we're in a rural area. Transportation is limited," Ovitsky explained. 

"We're seeing now a portion of the population that has fear and anxiety to come to the food pantry network, and we have had ICE raids at food pantries in the Berkshires, and work schedules. A lot of pantries are open during work hours, so we're seeing a need for kind of after-work-hour access." 

What is special about the county, she said, is its ability to collaborate, come together to discuss issues, and create solution-oriented activities. This sentiment was echoed throughout the conversation, State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier describing collaboration as the county's "secret sauce." 

Ovitsky said there is an opportunity to access more people through the healthcare system with food as medicine programming and to connect with the local food system and farms. 

In Berkshire County, 22,000 residents rely on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and while it is unclear when the federal government will release November benefits, the secretary said Massachusetts could disperse the funds within 48 hours once it gets guidance to do so. 

Executive Director and co-founder of Roots Rising, Jessica Vecchia, reported that since 2013, the nonprofit's farmers' market has generated about $3 million in sales, 30 percent from nutrition assistance benefits and its market match program. 

"There have been some years where our vendors will share that they've received 50 percent of their sales through SNAP and [the Healthy Incentives Program], so it is significant," she said. 

Roots Rising's mission is to empower youth and build community through food and farming. Vecchia explained that they have robust food equity initiatives, including the Market Match program that doubles the purchasing power of shoppers who use SNAP, the Women, Infants, and Children Program funding, and senior coupons.  

"We're also a HIP authorized market, so some of our farmers have the ability to accept HIP and process HIP. For those that don't, we are able to process it on their behalf," she said. 

"So again, ensuring that there's equity amongst our farmers and also the ability to choose for our shoppers, who they want to shop with, what they want to shop for. We have a lot of really creative programs." 

Roots Rising has teamed up with Berkshire Bounty for a buy-back program over the winter season so that farmers can sell whatever they have left to go to food pantries. 

The Rev. Michael Denton, pastor of United Church of Christ, said losing SNAP benefits would take roughly $4 million out of Berkshire County's economy, adding, "that affects all the farmers, it affects the supermarkets, it affects everything."

"I lived over on the West Coast and moved over here, and part of the reason was because, sort of, in the same way that Silicon Valley is a place where there's technological innovation, this is really the place where there's social innovation more so than any else in the country," he explained. 

"By some numbers, we've got more nonprofits within Berkshire County than anywhere else in the country. By other counts, as far as the number of people who give, just flat out give, we have more people who give than anywhere else in the country within Berkshire County, too." 

He reported that when he first came here, Pittsfield Community Food Pantry was serving 750 households a month. 

Also present at the discussion were representatives from Community Health Programs, Cathedral of the Beloved, and the city of Pittsfield. 

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