• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Amherst Survival Center

Amherst Survival Center

Helping Neighbors in Need

  • ABOUT
    • JUSTICE, EQUITY, DIVERSITY, & INCLUSION AT THE ASC
    • FAQs
    • STAFF & BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    • HISTORY
    • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
  • PROGRAMS
    • COMMUNITY MEALS
    • FOOD PANTRY
      • MOBILE FOOD PANTRY
    • FRESH FOOD DISTRIBUTION
    • COMMUNITY STORE
    • HEALTH CLINIC
    • RESOURCE CENTER & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
    • EVENT CALENDAR
  • DONATE
    • INDIVIDUAL GIVING
    • BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY SPONSORS
    • FUNDRAISE FOR US
    • FUNDRAISING EVENTS
      • Empty Bowls 2023
      • Hike for Hunger
    • DONATE FOOD
    • DONATE GOODS
    • 2022-2023 GIFT CATALOG
    • VAN 2022
  • VOLUNTEER
  • CONTACT
  • TRANSLATE SITE
    • en English
      zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)ps Pashtopt Portugueseru Russianes Spanishen English

ABOUT THE AMHERST SURVIVAL CENTER

FAQs
STAFF & BOARD
OUR HISTORY
Amherst Survival Center logo

The Center gets vital and essential support from local businesses, civic organizations, faith communities and individuals who donate their time and resources.

Learn about the Amherst Survival Center

Since 1976, the Amherst Survival Center has promoted the health and well being of residents of Franklin and Hampshire counties with a wide variety of programs designed to help people meet their basic needs.

The Amherst Survival Center provides a welcoming community where families and individuals can come for food and access to other resources. People are here to share their material resources, their expertise, and frustrations. No one is turned away.

The Amherst Survival Center serves more than 6,000 people each year. Our services, all of which are free, include a food pantry, to go community meals, fresh food distribution, a warming center with computers for those experiencing homelessness, information & referral, as well as a variety of other support services.

Showers, laundry, and lockers are available for people experiencing homelessness. Additionally, our resource center hosts representatives from other area service organizations making the Amherst Survival Center a one-stop-shop for accessing resources. Finally, all of this is provided in a warm community center environment, with activities ranging from live music to sewing workshops to office hours with elected officials. There is no eligibility or requirements to come to the Amherst Survival Center. All are welcome. 

Volunteers are the backbone of the Amherst Survival Center. The Center’s 250-plus weekly volunteers do everything from cooking and cleaning to providing medical care and stocking pantry shelves.

Our Mission

The Amherst Survival Center connects residents of Hampshire and Franklin Counties to food, clothing, healthcare, wellness, and community, primarily through volunteer efforts.

Our Vision Statement

The Amherst Survival Center is a welcoming community. Families and individuals can come for food, clothing, health care, and companionship, and to share their resources, information, concerns, experiences, and expertise. We create an environment where people move beyond a condition of need and where everyone can rely on, support, and accept each other.

Our Core Values

The Amherst Survival Center is committed to the following core values. These values apply on both the individual and organizational level and inform and guide all practices.

  • Inclusive Community: We are committed to fostering a strong, cooperative and diverse community. We provide a respectful, fair community with the opportunity for friendship, security, and change.
  • Compassion: We are committed to the values of compassion, dignity, humor, respect, and patience. We nurture acceptance and caring within the community.
  • Integrity: We seek to maintain an environment that embraces the values of accountability, openness, transparency, and authenticity.
  • Continual improvement: We are committed to continually reflecting on, consistently evaluating what we do, identifying research to improve our work, and using best practices in all that we do.
  • Stewardship: We are dedicated to carefully managing the center’s human resources, ensuring sound fiscal management and development, and consistently examining and conserving our use of energy and materials.

Approved by the Amherst Survival Center Board of Directors, June 8, 2015

Our Shared Impact

Our impact reaches people and communities throughout Hampshire and Franklin Counties. Thanks to staff, volunteers, and supporters, our neighbors can depend on the Amherst Survival Center to provide a welcoming community where families and individuals can come for food, clothing, health care, community, and for companionship and relief from isolation. You can join us and become part of our daily efforts to reduce the effects of food insecurity in our neighbors.

Please take a look at our Annual Impact Report from May 2021 – April 2022:

VIEW BUILDING MAP

We look forward to reopening our building to our community! Under normal circumstances, this is what you would find in the Amherst Survival Center. Currently lunches and fresh food distribution are being distibuted outside and the store and clinic are closed so that we can focus on getting more food to more people during the Covid crisis.

Map of building

Footer

Translate this site

en English
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)ps Pashtopt Portugueseru Russianes Spanishen English

We are open:

COMMUNITY CENTER & MEALS:
M 12-3
T 12-3
W CLOSED
TH 12-3
F 12-3

PANTRY:
M 12-3
T 12-3
W CLOSED
TH 12-7
F 12-3
S 3rd Saturday/month

Address:

P.O. Box 9629
138 Sunderland Rd.
North Amherst, MA 01059

Ph: 413-549-3968  amherstsurvival@amherstsurvival.org

We are on the PVTA bus route:

PVTA Bus 33 schedule

Newsletter sign up

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Phone
  • Twitter
United Way

Copyright © 2023 · Amherst Survival Center ·

  • VOLUNTEER
  • COMMUNITY MEALS-Archived
  • ABOUT THE AMHERST SURVIVAL CENTER
  • FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS