It’s day 3 of the March for the food Bank. 

But you, say, wasn’t it just the past two days? Isn’t that enough marching? The thing about it is that the march has never ventured west into the last county that the Food Bank supports…. UNTIL NOW. 

We’ll share how the very first Berkshires Mini march sounded from its start at Hot Plate Brewing to 3 locations all helping the nearly 30% of Pittsfield residents that are food insecure: The Dream Center, Mercado de Vida, and the Pittsfield Community Food Pantry, each with very different ways that they serve the people of the west-most part of the state. We’ll hear stories of the folx they see day in and day out, how the Food Bank aids their daily work, and more. 

Then we’ll hear from the Governor, who joined Monte for a second time on the march for the food bank. Maura Healey talks about the difficulties states are facing in light of the recent SNAP pauses and more and how hunger fits into the well-being of the state and its citizens, and how it affects some of the other issues currently on her docket. 

Plus we’ll hear yesterday’s totals from the March to End Hunger's end in Greenfield and tell you two places where you don’t have to walk to support the Food Bank with two musically driven events in Northampton happening tonight and Friday. 

Today we hear the conclusion of walking for 3 days across 4 counties and 46 miles to raise awareness of hunger and food insecurity in western Mass as the 16th March for the Food Bank is in the midst of its longest leg, 26 miles from Hampshire into Franklin County. 

We’ll hear from many of the folx walking along the way including Food Bank Ex. Director Andrew Morehouse, State Reps Homar Gomez, Lindsay Sabadosa, and Mindy Domb, State Senator Jo Comerford, DA David Sullivan, hear about the agricultural side of this issue from CISA’s Ex Dir Jennifer Core and Farmer Ben Clark, while visiting more of the almost 200 food pantries and meal sites that the Food Bank of Western Mass supports day in and out including the Amherst Survival center and the unlikely hub of food insecurity that is UMass. 

Plus a check in with the man dressed as Fred Rogers himself, Monte Belmonte as he and others push two empty shopping carts north to Greenfield.

Today on the fabulous 413, the 16th March for The Food Bank of Western Mass. begins, and we follow the journeys of Monte Belmonte, and those who seek to help our community members facing hunger and food insecurity. 

We’ll take on two counties today, walking from Springfield, through Chicopee, Holyoke, Easthampton, and finally Northampton to raise awareness and hear stories; not just about those trying to make sure our neighbors are fed, but about what repercussions the recent issues concerning snap have inflicted on folx in our area.

We’ll hear from US Reps Jim McGovern and Richie Neal, Ex. Director Andrew Morehouse, State Reps Pat Duffy and Shirley B. Arriaga, State Senator Jake Oliveira, mayors and marchers and more in addition to meeting folx in some of the food banks that count themselves among the 199 that the food bank supports across the 4 counties, as they push two empty shopping carts 17 miles north to raise awareness about the ongoing fight against hunger. And of course, as check in with the man dressed as Ernie from Sesame St himself.

NEPM’s Hunger Awareness week gets an endcap, with a tasty music sandwich, where the filling is birds. 

It starts at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, where the watercolor paintings of Robin Crofut-Brittingham’s new book, The Illuminated Book of Birds are currently on display through the end of the month. We speak with the author/artist about her work and her event at the exhibit on Nov. 29th

Then we head to Holyoke to meet with the most beloved octegenarian chorus in the world. The Young at Heart Chorus is performing a concert this Sunday, Nov. 23 at the Academy of Music comprised entirely of protest songs of many flavors. We speak with co-musical director Bob Cilman and several of the performers about the ongoing need for songs that question the state of the world, and the ones that'll show up in their "10 Alarm Fire: We Won't Shut Up" program.  

And for Live Music Friday, LuxDeluxe are making their post Thanksgiving show at the Iron Horse in Northampton a tradition, but this year are turning the concert into a benefit for the Food Bank of Western Mass. We’ll get a taste of the good times to be had with them on November 28th. 

NEPM’s Hunger Awareness week continues, and today our weekly conversation with Congressman Jim McGovern dials in on food insecurity. 

McGovern is one of the strongest anti-hunger advocates in Congress and today we’ll hear how fighting hunger used to be a bipartisan issue. And why and when that changed. We’ll separate fact from fiction when it comes to some of the narratives surrounding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. And hear about his involvement in the 16th annual March for The Food Bank.

While times may be tough and getting tougher for those who are hungry in this country, the US is a great place to be ultra-wealthy. Chuck Collins, the former heir to the Oscar Meyer fortune, has a new book called Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. We’ll talk to the author about how billionaires may be impacting your everyday life more than you know. Chuck will be at the Odyssey in South Hadley tonight. 

And speaking of bookshops, dozens of them will descend on Northampton this weekend at the Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair. We’ll talk rare editions, book bindings, and how this book fair is helping a local library with the book fair founder Mark Brumberg. 

As NEPM’s Hunger Awareness Week continues, we head to another newer pantry just up the road from us here in Springfield. Born Free Food Pantry was birthed from a need in Six Corners to give access to the community to food and services that generally aren’t as easily available. We speak with founders Charlie Holmes and Terrence Lee, and other volunteers about feeding the people’s needs through faith and more. 

We also have an extra rare Live Music Wednesday with Jude Roberts, who we last saw as part of The Mammals. He’s got songs all his own, and a beautiful take on catchy folk in his latest album "The Olive and the Vine”, and we’ll give you a preview before you can see them for yourself at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket. 

Plus word Nerd Emily Brewster senior editor at Merriam Webster helps to explain the letters we don’t say and why as we explore the origins of silent letters in english words, and the historical occasions on which we sometimes say them. 

Hunger awareness week continues here at NEPM, so, we’ll take you into one of the newest of the 199 organizations that the Food Bank of Western Mass works with in Western Mass at The Brick House in Turners Falls. Executive director Tom Taffe brings us into his small-but-mighty food pantry and tells us about the innovative new collaborative anti-hunger effort that several organizations in Montague have formed to fight hunger together

We’ll head to Chesterfield to a small but incredibly diverse farm that is no stranger to the workings of both Snap and HIP as they affect both the people who need their services and the farmers supplying the produce for those programs. Rachel and Tevis Roberston-Goldberg, who show us the incredible array of things they produce at Crabapple Farm from livestock, to houseplants, to produce and more, and the effect that federal and state programs have on us all. 

A new play at CitySpace in Easthampton about the fateful accident that paralyzed soul legend Teddy Pendegrass and scandalized his career opens Nov 21 & 22. The Night We Rode takes a new approach to looking at the event and we’ll speak with playwright Mercedes Loving-Manley and the man playing Teddy, Springfield’s own Terrell James Jones about humanizing the people involved, and the things left behind in getting a new play on it's feet. 

It’s Hunger Awareness Week here at NEPM and that means all week we’ll be talking with folx involved with the fight against hunger, the proverbial boots on the ground here in Western Mass. 

We start at the top, with the head of the organization for which Monte will march next week, executive director for the Food Bank of Western Mass Andrew Morehouse. We’ll hear about the ways that inflation and reduced government outlets have affected their abilities to service the area’s 199 food pantries, and the increase in demand that’s occurred this year. Plus we’ll get into the newest leg for the march for the food bank, the Berkshire’s Mini March. 

Right next to the issue of hunger is that of housing insecurity. Bittersweet Lane is a new book that is a magical mix of memoir and hard looks at policy regarding public housing and the effect and issues surrounding the lack of housing in the Nation. We speak with the author Jamie Madden about his ongoing work on this subject, his thoughts on recent efforts regarding affordable housing and more before he reads at a launch event at Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley on Tuesday, November 18th. 

Today on the fabulous 413, we’ll visit the subterranean home of a legacy Western Mass business that is about the change hands. Turn It Up CDs and more took over a basement in Northampton 30 years ago and the owners, Patrick Pezzati and Chandra Hancock are now turning over the keys to one of their longtime employees, Carson Arnold, who starting shopping at Turn It Up when he was 10 years old. We’ll hear about how a store selling physical media has managed to weather 3 decades of digital incursion.

And if you were looking for a fun way to support The March for The Food Bank coming up in just over a week and don't want to walk any part of 43 miles, maybe pop into State St. Fruit Store or Coopers in Northampton where you can make a donation that will land you with a goody bag filled with wine and more. And in the Thunderdome, we’ll taste some indigenous Eastern Block grapes with our wine snob friends at State Street

And it’s Live Music Friday, we welcome back Gina Coleman and Diego Mongue from the Berkshire-based Misty Blues Band who bring their well rooted blues  at De La Luz Soundstage in Holyoke tonight

We’re going from coast to coast in a new book from Alex Werth. On Loop is an examination of the collision of sound, politics, racism, and culture in Oakland, CA and explores the trajectory of influence they have had on the evolution of the city. We speak with the author before you have a chance to hear more about his writing and experiences at a book launch party this Tuesday, Nov 18 at 33 Hawley in Northampton. 

And in Amherst, we’re taking our own bodies to extreme to help support others. The CWC Chilly Challenge will bring people together to support the daily work of the Center for Women and Community this Saturday, Nov. 15th. We speak with Director of Programming and Development, Kathie Cravelli about the daunting prospect of dunking yourself in very cold water, as well as the services they provide beyond the campus of UMass. 

And the Government has just gotten back in session after the longest shut down in the nation’s history, but congressman Jim McGovern has many thoughts about that process and what it’s done to his party, plus the possible penalization of the bay state for its actions paying for the SNAP deficit, the albatross of the Epstein files and more.