Help sew bags for
The Old Creamery Coop

All skill levels are welcome

February 24, 2024
12:00 - 5:00

Cummington Community House
33 Main St., Cummington, MA


Friends of Reusable Bags is having a  

Bag-Making Workshop
Saturday, February 17, 2024,  10:00-1:00

Greenfield Library
412 Main St.

in the upstairs MakerSpace room
during the Winter Farmers Market

 
Masks strongly requested.
More info available to the public at Info@GreeningGreenfieldMA.org.
More info about Greening Greenfield.

BagShare Event Calendar!

Anyone can list their Bagshare Event!
When you post your event make sure you use the word BAGSHARE, somewhere in the description.
Just hit the green "Submit an Event" link below and fill out the form.



Be sure and check the preview before submitting, since you won't be able to edit. If you need a major fix or deletion, please contact Rose.

If you see an old video that says to remove plastic liners, please send the link to Rose at rose@threesalamanders.com so she can make sure it's taken down. 

This is the latest video on how to make the seed/feed and brewery bags.

Bagshare Partners we honor and thank with all of our hearts!!!


Eastworks owner Will Bundy!
Thank you for donating our beloved sewing center, space # 330 in Eastworks.!!

Thank you for donating our sewing center in the Community House in Cummington!!

Thank you for donation our liability insurance for 2018!!
We recommend your company to everyone!

We thank your students for braiding the baling twine, stapling the handles and processing the upholstery samples. We are a team cleaning up and stepping up to the  plate.

Bob Vincent, Steve Sayer, Roo Trimble, Bruce
and many more of our mechanics
Thank you for fixing our donated sewing machines and showing us how!

Rosemary Wessel and Lei Fay
For doing our website

Patricia Fietta
For making the gorgeous posters for The Adams Bagshare Challenge

Our Volunteers/ You know who you are!
Thank you for volunteering at The HCHC since 2008 sewing bags.
Thank you for organizing volunteers at The Amherst Survival Center once a month
Thank you for repairing jackets and showing us how.
Thank you for running the Leeds sewing group
Thank you for ordering the business cards and getting us to do The Eastworks Open Studio
Thank you for sewing bags for the libraries
Thank you for doing seed/feed bag workshops at your kid’s school
Thank you for ferrying drip tape
Thank you for having the guts to make The Creamery bag free!

Thank you ALL for keeping The Bagshare Project sustainable with almost no money or grants since 2007. Passionate volunteerism is unstoppable.

Volunteers Wanted for Northampton Survival Center!


The Bagshare Project has devised an ingenious folding and grommeting technique to make malt bags into sturdy shopping bags.
With 6-8 volunteers we can make 100 bags in 2 hours!
The bags are used in the Northampton Survival Center food pantry and are better than any paper or plastic bag as they are made to hold up to 50 lbs.

Be part of our bag making team!
Tuesday, May1 • 1:30-3:30

Fulfill community service requirements and learn a useful skill.


Contact Diane Drohan: diane@northamptonsurvival.org

Adams Sets Challenge to Make 8,400 Recycled Shopping Bags


By Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
February 24, 2017


ADAMS, Mass. — The town of Adams is setting a challenge: to create 8,400 recycled shopping bags by Earth Day on April 22.

The local BagShare Project uses recycled materials — mainly plastic woven feed bags and used irrigation tubing — to create free reusable bags for consumer use.  Brought to North Berkshire by Leni Fried and Mike Augspurger of the Old Stone Mill, the town's taken up the challenge to create a sustainable bag for every resident in Adams ahead of the plastic bag ban that goes into effect on March 30 for larger retailers.



"As most of you know, the bag ban was voted last year ... primarily large retailers will not be able to give out plastic bags," said Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco at Tuesday's Arts Advisory Board reception. "It's great environmental progress for the town of Adams and some communities far wealthier and more progressive than the town of Adams have failed to do this so far."

The town and the Adams Arts Advisory Board, in conjunction with the Old Stone Mill, is calling on organizations, businesses, colleges, civic groups, schools, neighborhoods, congregations and individuals to pledge to make 120 bags. It's not just for Adams — anyone interested in helping out can join. Mazzucco said the town's employees are challenging North Adams to make bags.

While the goal is to make enough bags for the population of Adams, anyone can make bags for their families or friends or co-workers.

The BagShare Project dates to 2007 and is the brainchild of Fried, who began teaching groups how to sew them in the Cummington area. According to the website, some 15,000 recycled bags have been made from fabric, canvas and woven plastic.

The Old Creamery in Cummington became one of the first stores to stock the free bags and donated recycled totes. The store was using 49,000 paper bags annually; since 2009, it's been offering boxes or free bags and is saving about $5,000 annually.



The Fire House Cafe on Park Street, now the home of the Adams Anthony Center, has been hosting workshops on how to make bags. It will be open from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, for anyone interested in learning about the project or who wants to make bags.

Francie Anne Riley of the advisory board explained that the bags are mainly made from feed, bird seed or malt bags, including donations from Bright Ideas Brewery. The bags are cut, folded and grommeted with irrigation tubing handles. Bill Kolis, owner of the cafe, said they hold 50 to 100 pounds and last forever.



"What you have is something a little bit bigger than a paper grocery bag, it's made of that woven plastic so you can hose them out when they get dirty," Riley said. "They're fun, they've got pretty cool designs on them from the different grains. ... There are pictures on them depending what they were used for."



The firehouse already has a pile of bags of various sizes, but anyone can bring their own materials.



"It's really quite simple to do, a bag probably takes 10 minutes to put together," Riley said. "When you think about keeping stuff like that out of landfills, it's wonderful.

"

Those interested in the challenge can pick up a pledge form at Town Hall or sign up online here.

In addition to the firehouse workshops, Fried can be contacted at leni@oldstonemillcenter.org or 413-634-5591 to set up a bag-making event at the Old Stone Mill.

"Given the farms we currently have in the community and our agricultural history, it ties in very well to who we are and what we're trying to do," Mazzucco said.

#AdamsBagShareChallenge

Latest Initiative In Adams, MA!

Take the 120 bag Pledge and help Adams meet their goal.

» •• Sign up online here ••

We need 70 groups to take the pledge!

Check out the growing list of groups in the left hand sidebar of this site!
The following groups have taken the 120-Bag Pledge in the Adams 8,400 Bag Initiative.

The Baguettes
(Completed) (Adams)
Youth Center Inc (Adams)
Team Big Y (Completed) (Adams)
Williamstown Girl Scouts -
The grommet girls
(Williamstown) (pledge completed)
**Bishop West Real Estate (Adams) (Double pledge)
Greylock Federal Credit Union (Adams)
Pine Cobble School
Adams Select Board (Adams)
Little Drummers (Savoy)
Adams Therapuetic Massage (Adams)
Sacks in the city
**Old Stone Mill Center, LLC (Adams) (Double pledge)
Adams Council on Aging (Adams)
Downtown Adams (Adams)
Pro Adams (Adams)
C.T. Plunkett Elementary (pending)
Deerfield Academy (Deerfield) (pending)
Stoneleigh Burnham School (Greenfield) (pending)
Northampton H.S. Environmental Club -
Northampton Key Club
(pending)
Plunkett
Real Eyes Gallery
Adams Free Library
***Philbo Baggins baggers of River Hill Pottery (Triple pledge)
Community Drop in Sandbaggers (240 bags and counting...)
Town of Adams staff
Gandara Alternative Options/ Chicopee


Want to take the challenge to help Adams reach 8,400 reuseable bags by Earth Day 2017?

Make the 120-Bag Pledge!
Sign up here.

Less for the Landfill thanks to Deerfield Academy

The latest school to adopt the bagshare projects nationwide initiative:
Less for the Landfill from Deerfield Academy on Vimeo.

the Bag Share gets air time on Public Radio International.

The BagShare in Amherst
» Listen here

In cities, on roadsides, in trees – the discarded plastic bag is everywhere, and nationwide Americans throw away some 100 billion of them each year. Some jurisdictions have bans or charges on single-use plastic bags. Volunteers in Western Massachusetts are trying to further reduce waste by turning scrap material into reusable shopping bags – and sharing them as an attractive and practical alternative.

Living on Earth’s Charlotte Rutty visits theBagShare.



Come One Come All!

Sew/ Sort/Grommet for The Bagshare Project
September 21, 6-8
Eastworks
Easthampton, MA
Space # 330

Drop off donations, Tour the sewing Center
Questions? Call Leni 
634-5591

Amherst Survival Center offering sewing workshops, access to machines

The Amherst Survival Center will offer free sewing workshops beginning July 7. (Republican file Diane Lederman)

By Diane Lederman, MassLive / Springfield Republican
June 30, 2016


AMHERST — Over the years, the Amherst Survival Center has expanded with health clinics, food pantry access on Saturdays and diaper distribution.

This summer it will offer sewing workshops for anyone in the community who wants to learn to sew or repair a garment who doesn't have access to a sewing machine. It's for "people who need to fix their clothing or people who need a refresher course," said Tracey Levy, program director.
Community member Roxy Schneider, who is working on the bag share program, had some extra machines and offered them to the center, Levy said. In BagShare, volunteers sew and donate cloth bags to stores, libraries, farmers markets and other places to help reduce waste.

In the days since Levy posted the workshops at the center, three people already asked to sign up. "There's definite interest," she said. "I'm thrilled about it," she said.

Experienced volunteers will be available to help during the workshops, Levy said.

The workshops are free and run Thursdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. beginning July 7 and continuing through Aug. 25. Each workshop is limited to five people and those interested need to register.
People sign up can be in person, by email at tracey@amherstsurvival.org or phone at 549-3968, ext. 102.