Fire & Rain Campaign
Let's install awnings above the entrance to South Community Food Pantry!
You can provide comfort, care, dignity & protection for the clients and volunteers at the largest food pantry in Berkshire County.
Join us to protect more than 1,100 families every month!
South Community Food Pantry is located in downtown Pittsfield. Every week, our neighbors wait outside the food pantry entrance to receive food and meals. Our clients often endure pouring rain, glaring sun, and wintery conditions as they wait. We're trying to change that.
This is YOUR opportunity to offer comfort, care, dignity and protection by providing shelter for our clients and volunteers. The installation of retractable awnings above the entrance to our building will provide all this and more!
Our clients deserve shelter.
Client Shelter & Dignity
Clients wait outside our entrance on weekly food distribution days and during the annual Thanksgiving Angels event, which brings a huge number of people to our food pantry. There is currently nothing in place to protect our visitors from inclement Berkshire weather.
Awnings will provide shelter and dignity for our clients — plus, they block up to 94% of the sun's dangerous UV rays! Join in the campaign to make this happen!
Food & Volunteer Protection
During the Thanksgiving Angels distribution, families drive through the parking lot area to pick up boxes of food which are stacked outside.
Awnings will protect both the food and volunteers during unpredictable, wintery November weather. Support safe and dignified food distribution!
Safe Social Gathering
During the pandemic, our food pantry replaced indoor sit-down meals with take-away meals (breakfast and dinner), which we continue to serve. Our clients and volunteers has missed out on vital community mealtime together since this change. People often sit on the parking lot ground or on milk crates to eat and chat.
A sheltered space will allow people to safely and comfortably sit outdoors and enjoy meals together. Together, we can make this happen!
A Welcoming Space
The entrance to South Community Food Pantry is a huge brick wall with no signage or decoration. In addition to protection, an awning will also provide uplifting decoration to this bleak entrance. Meet us under the awning!
This can only happen with your support!
Thank you for joining this community project! Please share our campaign with others so we can make this important project happen!
The details:
We are seeking to raise $22,000 by the end of Summer 2023 to purchase and install two retractable 22-foot awnings from Sondrini Enterprises. The food pantry entrance and exit are adjacent to the parking lot behind South Congregational Church at 110 South Street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.