Greylock Federal Awards Special Grants to Local Food Pantries

11:32AM / Tuesday, April 21, 2026Print Story | Email Story

(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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Prospect Meadow Farm Opens New Vocational Barn

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:40AM / Thursday, June 18, 2026

A charcuterie board at the event displays fare from some of the regional producers.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Prospect Meadow Farm last week officially opened a new barn to sell plants and other goods it produces.

Prospect Meadow Farm Berkshires is an expansion of ServiceNet's first farm in Hatfield that has provided meaningful agricultural work, fair wages, and personal and professional growth to hundreds of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since opening in 2011.

The Berkshires farm opened on Crane Avenue two years ago and has now introduced a new vocational and unwinding space for the more than 25 farmhands who get paid a minimum wage.

"This is a facility for our folks who work on the farm to learn additional skills and do additional work," said Vice President of Vocational Services Shawn Robinson at the Friday event. "So we have a food packaging space, we've got a walk-in cooler space, we've got a floral design space, we've got a farm store room for staff, lunch room, and then a meditation room that we're standing in now, which is when you're having those hard moments and you need to get away from everything.

"This is going to be a peaceful place you can find and sort of find some comfort, and then hopefully get back to work."

The barn was built by funds from the state Executive Office of Economic Development and the state Department of Agricultural Resources that equated to around $600,000, with ServiceNet contributing around the same amount. The structure took over a year to build.

The state's Department of Developmental Services Commissioner Sarah Peterson spoke on how meaningful this farm and ServiceNet is to her and that this place is important to those who need it.

"Places like this are so crucial because they create opportunities for people living with disabilities that aren't plentiful," she said. "People living with developmental and intellectual disabilities have an unemployment rate over 25 percent five times the rate for people without disabilities, even more jarring is under appointment, which is at 80 percent. That means that four out of every five people with disabilities earn below market rate wages and have limited upward mobility.

"The building itself is really impressive, but what you're really seeing here is the result of vision. It's about opportunity, it's about community, and it's founded in the belief that every person deserves the chance to learn and work and contribute to thrive under the leadership of ServiceNet."

One aspect of the barn will be the market where produce from the farm and other local growers will be sold as well as keeping the tradition of Jodi's Seasonal, which previously occupied the location, alive with plant sales. The market will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"Everything you see in terms of the tomatoes, the fresh produce, that's all done with the hands of our farm hands here, individuals with disabilities who get out every single morning, get in those greenhouses, put their hands in the dirt, and make all of this happen, and this is just the start," said Robinson. "This farm is a little over a year old at this point, but give it another two years, and we hope to be growing enough food to share throughout the Berkshires."

Robinson said the farm is focused on local food security, recently partnering with the Hatfield Council on Aging and planning to work toward making enough food to partner with places in the Berkshires.

He said the barn serves the Hatfield farm and what the employees here needed.

"We've been able to learn the needs of the farm hands who work there and so we have learned that they need a comfortable break space for those times where it's hard to be out in the fields, we've learned that a quiet space for when you're going through something you need to be away from people are key, and then also we have a small farm store in Hatfield, but we've seen increasing interest in retail work from our participants, so we thought it was time for a larger-scale farm store," he said.

Robinson noted that Prospect Meadow Farm has helped the individuals working there feel valued and head.

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