The Amherst Survival Center Review

I consistently find this place to be amazing, full of resources and I am always treated with kindness and respect.

Great place! If you need help, check in with them. They are a great resource to our community

This is an amazing place for people in need. They have a descent sized cafeteria serving great food. A clothing little store, grocery area and vegetables area. All for free no questions asked when walking in. Very good community service.

It s awesome that this place exists, but you really leave here feeling bad about needing to be here. The staff are not great about creating a welcoming atmosphere. It s hard enough being poor without an organization making you feel like a second-class citizen about it.

A great place if you need food or clothing. They have people who can help you with social services that may be useful to you. An excellent asset to the community.

Best place in town couldn't get through these rough and tough times without it !!

This center is very helpful for the Western Mass community. They serve lunch 4 times a week. People can sign up to do pantry shopping there once a month. Everyday people can grab fresh food from different markets. Remember of bringing the bags with you! Usually you can get extra things at the pantry room if you have your own bags!

Great place to start if your looking for help or to start over. Pleasant atmosphere and great people with knowledge of places to refer you if you're in needs.

Free food. Free clothes and household items. Aggressive, poorly trained staff.

Great initiative, volunteers are great and very nice.

This place is a lifesaver, literally, for many people in the pioneer valley area. The staff is always very mindful and kind, even though this is sometimes tough considering the quirks of their patrons. It's all very organized and clean. Has great weekly rotating resources. They serve a pretty interesting and enjoyable lunch there too. If you're local and in need I highly recommend.

Free lunch a place to shower and do laundry if your homeless

People can be aggressive at times waiting to get in. Have to show up early if you want breakfast and good deals in the shop. Monthly food is always packed.

Best place to donate! Also best place for free clothes, food, even medical help! It's an amazing local nonprofit.

I love this place!! It's the best help ever and good hot meals daily.

Don't try to volunteer here, they reject perfectly good volunteers based on their personal preferences and availability. I am a college student who needed 8 hours of volunteer experience at a local organization for a large project grade in one of my courses. I even said I was willing to do much more than that, and even offered to come back to Amherst in the summer, from my hometown, to remain a volunteer. This was not "good enough" for them and they told my colleague and I that we were "just wasting our time" and that they "don't want anyone who is not ready to make this organization a weekly commitment." Last time I checked, any volunteers should be appreciated no matter what, and many people do not have the time to make volunteering a weekly commitment on top of work and school or what have you. If you have nothing else going on in your life, volunteer at this place, because that is the only way they will accept you! Also, the websites volunteer directions do not need to be followed at all. I emailed and phoned the coordinator countless amounts of times and nobody ever got back to me. The website instructs you to contact someone to sign up for an orientation and to show up to your orientation with an already filled out application printed from their site. Seeing as no one ever got back to me, I showed up and was greeted, quite rudely, by a woman who said to me "OH, you're not on my list for the orientation" with a very surprised look on her face when I showed that I had brought the application, already filled out. Everyone already there was sitting there filling out their applications, which confused me because the website specifically says to print your own and come with it completely filled out.

If you want to see how poor people is humiliated go there!!

Ive only been there a couple times and they were helpful hoping the colothing is always going quick and its hard to find right sizes THEY MUST BE POPULAR SIZES

Everyone at the survival center is AWESOME. Tthis day in age where we have the president pushing harvest boxes...gmo food and limited resources. We have a state representative Mindy Domb who was the director of the SC now working on behalf of those who need services and fighting on state level. educating the other states how to provide resources that point people in the direction of self advocacy and basic resources such a food housing jobs references and clothing. PLEASE CONTINUE TO DONATE AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL THAT DONATE. The SC provides Christmas dinner a New Years party, bus passes, yoga passes, children's museum tickets, clothing food pantry. truly genuine and truly helpful. thank you everyone...please lets spread this around the USA. Many international people emigrating also use the resources provided. Judgement free zone!

The people are so nice. And you don't feel embarrassed to be there.

Huge help for the community. Many services offered all for free.

Perfect , kind, capitalism is more irrelevant every day . Go here.

My experience at the center, was great. The volunteers are really nice, and very helpful.

Good food, great staff.. excelant support for those who are struggling, even if your not its still a great environment

These people are kind and generous. I highly recommend them to anyone who knows people who may need some assistance. I take all my used items to them, exclusively.

People running this place make Amherst humane and beautiful.

The Amherst Survival Center has been a lifesaver to me and my family. I don't know how I would've managed without it. The staff and volunteers here are very helpful and friendly. I love this place and I think all of you are doing a remarkable job and have great patience. Being able to get 15 items in the store and a meal has been a blessing. Thank you!

Great place for those who need food and they can't afford it because of any circumstances. It's pretty big. They ask you from what town you are. Then they give you a ticket for you to have free lunch that they make. They have an area where you sign up and get food, cans, cereal, vegetables, fruits, personal hygiene products, diapers even cat or dog food. They also have a thrift store that you can get free items every visit.

One of the best non-profit organizations working for the betterment of the society. It is serving so many people, who needs help every day. Daily fresh food distribution is helpful dozens of people. Community store has amazing collection of books, clothes, shoes, toys etc donated by the amazing donors. Pantry is a great service for people who has low family income.

Its the best place in town for people who need help with services

People here are really rude and the place is way to small to accommodate all the people it needs too. I had the lady who sighs you in to get food bark at me about putting a box atop of a carriage cause there was no room to put it anywhere else cause the room is to small and packed with people.On another occasion I watched the same woman down talk a woman who was upset cause she couldn't find her friend she came in with. I try to avoid this place now as much as possible.

They provide lunch, groceries (vegetables, fruits, sweets, breads), and stores (cloth shoes, toys, tableware, books, ect.). All is free!

Very helpful place for families in need the serve free lunch and dinner except on Wednesday !

Good place to get free used cloths and a bite to eat if you can't afford it.

great place to get a bite and meet somebody new. help out ! volunteer- very good books, take one/leave one why not? I recomend this place highly.. please check em out, i mean even the architecture is cool, and u can't find friendlier people on the planet.