Getting Fresh Produce to the Neediest People

By Charlie Deitz

Pittsfield, MA – There are over 30 emergency food sites through out Berkshire County, and until recently there was no system for getting fresh, locally grown food onto their shelves. In the first of a 5 part series on local food production, WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports on one effort to provide locally harvested produce for some of the neediest residents in central and south county

"Got 75 pounds of radishes from project sprout in Great Barrington"
Paul Deslauriers and his long time partner Kathy Cardella park their white minivan on the street in front of the First United Methodist Church in Downtown Pittsfield. They've just made their rounds to a handful of local farms and community gardens collecting the day's yield, the van is loaded to the gills with hundreds of pounds of produce. They're bagging and boxing some of the bounty to be delivered into First United's food hall where they serve a weekly hot meal to between 80 and 130 people. Stephanie Filiault, the director of Christian net and ministries, is standing in the middle of the dining area talking with Deslauriers about the day's delivery, they've been working together for about a year, Filiault says it's made a world of difference being able to serve fresh produce as part of their weekly offering. "We actually use some of it for our meal."

The weekly meal, now called Harvest Table, has been around for 30 years this month. In the kitchen area, Alice Rose is starting to boil water and sort food, she's been working the harvest table for all 30 years, and remembers when it was called the bologna and cheese meal, but times have changed,"It's gotten a lot more maybe 50 or 60 families when we started."

Deslauriers drops off some 50 or so pounds of radishes, corn, kale, tomatoes and a few other crops before getting back in the van and moving onto the next site, "I've gotten up to 900 pounds in a week and have not come near meeting all the need."

Deslauriers works with a group called Co-Act, and his particular project is called the Food Net. He says 2 years ago he managed to get managers from all of the meal sites in central and south county together to discuss how to get more local bounty onto the tables. The food was there, and the need was there but what wasn't there was someone like him. 5 days a week, Deslauriers picks up the shares, loads his van and delivers to food sites, hundreds and hundreds of Berkshire residents are taking part in the new menu of fresh produce, but still Deslauriers is mostly doing this on his dime, and through the generosity of friends and loved ones,"We have been looking at getting funding but it hasn't been successful our efforts are worthy of consideration."

We pull up to the Christian Center and jump to action, the sliding doors fly open and Paul and Kathy start sorting food for this drop. Inside the center a hundred or so people are milling around, looking for open seats, and getting ready for the daily lunch, executive director Cheryl Nolan sits at a folding table with a few folders and an 80's model telephone next to her. Nolan takes a minute to talk about how important the local bounty is to her operation, "Some we can use,some we put out on the table,we can't afford it,can not afford to buy fresh produce."

The Christian Center gets about 50 or so pounds, and the cooks in the back get to work. Meanwhile, we're off to the next site, St Josephs just south of downtown Pittsfield where volunteer cook of about 15 years Bill Donahue says they get more people toward the end of the month because that's when the Social Security checks run out. St. Joe's gets cakes from local grocers, meat from local farmers, and produce from the food net, what he notices is that more often nowadays the local crops fill people's bags so they have food for the week, "They're handing out more and more bags."

And then to the next spot, the Salvation Army about a mile away, 5 days a week they serve a hot breakfast, it's usually where hungry residents make their first stop. Deslauriers and Cardella bag up the day's cut for the food pantry while Commanding Officer Scott Peabody talks about how giving people a meal helps open them up to talk, and to bond with others, he says the new addition of fresh produce gives him the feeling that his clients are getting the best nutrition possible, "It's limited as far as the resources go."

Deslauriers and Cardella load up the pantry and head off to the next drop in South County before they turn in and start all over the next day. September is National Hunger Action Month.