Jess Conzo is the executive director of the Alchemy Initiative and market manager of the Pittsfield Farmers Market. With parents who were both business minded and socially conscious, it’s not surprising that she would become a community organizer. Born in Worcester, raised in Boylston, she majored in social work and has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from The New School in NYC. In the Berkshires she’s found a welcoming environment in which to put her roots in the ground and practice her community-making skills. And right after the Farmers Market closes on Saturday, Jess, her fiance Chris Vecchia and their two young children will be driving to the Outer Banks, where they will get married in a casual, intimate beach wedding surrounded by friends and family. Community development has always been a passion of mine and I have seen, through both my studies and my travels, the varied process of re-energizing and transforming a community. I did my thesis work in East Harlem, piloting a cultural asset-mapping project. I spent a lot of time exploring this community — talking to residents, learning about the history and meeting the movers and shakers. There were these "places" that really brought people, and bound them, together. Community gardens. Cafes. Art centers. Places that everyone felt welcome. Places that spurred creativity and change. My vision was to help build a community through food and farming, health and healing and art and music. It wasn’t until I moved to the Berkshires in 2006 — led here by some friends — that I finally felt I had found "my" community. My first job here was in cultural programming at the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at MCLA, working with Jonathan Secor. It opened my whole world; I got to know all the cultural organizations in the area. In 2009, with a committed group of friends, I helped found Alchemy Initiative, a non-profit, grass roots organization that helps to build community through sustainability and the arts in the Berkshires. I quit my job at MCLA to focus on Alchemy. We give workshops in different spaces, host the Handmade Holiday Festival, urban gardening classes and many others. In 2012 we started the Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market. We are beginning our third year this Saturday, our first year at the newly renovated Pittsfield Common on First Street. As we’ve grown we need more staff, so this year we’re hiring and training two young people from Pittsfield Community Connection, which works with at-risk teenagers, to be our “market crew" who will help with the set up and break down. This will give them the chance to interact with our farmers. We’ve also received funding this year to start a double value program in July, in which we will match the benefits of SNAP (a.k.a. food stamps) and WIC coupon benefits. Dottie’s is one of my absolute favorite places in the area, and I love Mission and Elizabeth’s. We live near Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary and go there a lot. Our goal is to try to hit a new place every couple of weeks and explore a little bit.
