Community Supported Industry Grant

The CDCSB, in partnership with BerkShares, Inc. and the Berkshire Community Land Trust, has been awarded $10,000 from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation to further work on the Community Supported Industry (CSI) initiative. Modeled on the highly successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, CSI operates from the understanding that it takes a community to grow a business.

The project will convene Berkshire business leaders, along with private and public stakeholders, in three key regional economic sectors - healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing - to discuss potential expansions of existing businesses, and the creation of new businesses that can replace products and services presently being imported to the Berkshires.

“’Import replacement’ is key to growing and strengthening our regional economy,” said CDCSB Board Member Rachel Moriarty, Schumacher Center for a New Economics Operations Director and BerkShares Local Currency Program Director.

(press release sent to WSBS from the CDCSB for online and on-air use)