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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BCC Sees Another $1M for New Trades Program

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College was allocated more than $1 million from the state for an HVAC and heat pump trades program.

This will help BCC renovate an existing space into a lab and classroom, with the hope of welcoming the program’s first students in early 2027. Executive Director of Workforce and Community Education Linda Clairmont said there is "clearly" an interest, a lot of momentum, and demand for the skilled trades.

"We are beyond excited about this opportunity, not only for the college, but for the region, to be able to create a skilled trades program for adults, and it's a complement to what is already happening at the college," she said. 

The $1,188,635 award was announced on Tuesday as part of $13.4 million to 13 state community colleges through the Mass Clean Energy Center’s new Heat Pump and HVAC Training Network.  Between state and federal funding, the college has recently been allocated more than $2 million to diversify its educational offerings. 

Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal visited the college to highlight the $995,000 he secured through congressionally directed spending for a Trades Academy

The nearly $1.2 million in state funds will support a renovation on the first floor of the field administration building for an HVAC heat pump and lab classroom, along with two cohorts of ten students. 

"We have made a lot of progress," Clairmont reported. 

"We've identified a location, right on campus. We are working with architects and engineers right now to design the space, along with some expertise in what is state-of-the-art for HVAC training in real-world environments." 

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