PITTSFIELD – The National Board has awarded Berkshire County $49,311 in Phase 35 Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) assistance. Berkshire United Way, local administrator of the program, is urging qualifying organizations located throughout Berkshire County to submit an application for supplemental emergency food and shelter funding for Phase 35 at http://www.berkshireunitedway.org/emergency-food-and-shelter-program-efsp.
Local organizations chosen to receive funds must be private voluntary non-profits (with a voluntary board) or units of government; have an accounting system; practice non-discrimination; and have demonstrated the capability to deliver emergency food and/or shelter programs. Applicants must submit eight hard copies of the completed application by noon on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 to: Berkshire United Way, c/o Julie Singley, 200 South Street, Pittsfield, MA. 01201. Late submissions will not be accepted.
The funding award is made by a National Board that is chaired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and consists of representatives from the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, The Jewish Federations of North America, Catholic Charities USA, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and United Way Worldwide. Funds pass directly from FEMA’s EFSP program to the local agencies that are awarded funding, and a sub-committee of the local board made up of representatives of organizations that are not requesting or receiving funds determines the actual organizations that receive funding.
For Phase 34, FEMA awarded $61,848, which local representatives distributed to eleven Berkshire County organizations: Berkshire Community Action Council, the Salvation Army in Pittsfield, the Salvation Army in North Adams, Elizabeth Freeman Center, Construct, Inc., Christian Center of Pittsfield Inc., Berkshire Food Project, Service Net, Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative, Child Care of the Berkshires, and the American Legion VFW Emergency Food Pantry.