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A town saved by food
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"Community-supported restaurants" (CSRs) may be a small trend, but the businesses can have a big impact on local economies (and palates).
RODALE NEWS, HARDWICK, VT—Facing a Main Street once dotted with vacant stores, Hardwick, Vermont, a hardscrabble community of 3,000, has reached into its past to secure its future. The residents are betting on farming, much of it organic, to make Hardwick the town that was saved by food. (You can read all the details in The Town that Food Saved, by Ben Hewitt, Rodale, 2010).
And it's working. With the fervor of Internet pioneers, the area's young artisans and agricultural entrepreneurs are expanding aggressively, reaching out to investors, and working together to create a collective strength never before seen in this seedbed of Yankee individualism.
THE DETAILS: The most visible sign of Hardwick on the rise is Claire's Restaurant, sort of a clubhouse for farmers, that began with investments from its neighbors. It’s a CSR, a community-supported restaurant, of which there are only a handful around the country.
