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Born Free Food Pantry, musician Jude Roberts, Word Nerd

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 born from a need in the Six Corners neighborhood to give the community access to food and services that generally aren’t as readily 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.” We give you a preview before you can see him for yourself at The Dream Away Lodge in Becket on Nov. 21.

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 when we sometimes say them.

Christopher “Monte'' Belmonte is host and executive producer of NEPM's The Fabulous 413. He was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a radio host in western Massachusetts for the last 20 years — the last 17 of them as host of Mornings with Monte on The River 93.9/WRSI.
Kaliis Smith is a radio host and producer for NEPM's The Fabulous 413.