![]() ![]() “It can be easy for us to reach for our credit card in-store, but all those processing fees add up, creating a burden on our small businesses as money trickles out of our local economy,” said Rachel Moriarty, BerkShares Program Administrator. Since its inception in 2006, BerkShares has kept more than $10,000,000 in local circulation. The timely launch of digital BerkShares provides a cost-effective local alternative to mobile payment platforms and credit/debit card processing fees, so individuals can shop local and pay local - keeping the Berkshires at the forefront of local currency innovation. “We currently have the equivalent of $60,000 USD in BerkShares that we’re distributing as part of the public launch and promotion of the …$10,000 of which has been earmarked by donor dedicated to getting local farms, farmers, restaurants, food pantries, and venues buying from farms ,” said Jared Spears, Director of Communications at Schumacher Center for a New Economics in Great Barrington. The goal? To link the local food economy on one platform to foster more local exchange. ![]() With the outdoor market season just days away, the nonprofit is unfurling a new initiative aimed at farmers and food producers in the region. ![]() In late March, 15 years after debuting in paper form, BerkShares launched the Berkshire region’s local currency into the digital sphere, with a home-grown payments app. “We’ve always been advocates of the local community,” Dennis Iodice, Operations Manager at BMB, told The Edge, citing a cornerstone of the small bakery and its founder - the prototypical food purveyor BerkShares is seeking to partner with. This Saturday, when the Great Barrington Farmers Market opens for its 32nd season, BMB will not only be selling their wares - from Sunny Flax loaves and pain au chocolate to almond croissants and morning glory muffins - but also accepting digital BerkShares, in a fitting sign of the times and the local currency’s newest iteration.ĭennis Iodice, Operations Manager at Berkshire Mountain Bakery (photo courtesy Great Barrington Farmers’ Market). Great Barrington - Richard Bourdon has been accepting BerkShares at his Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Housatonic for nearly as long as he’s been shaping sourdough loaves by hand it’s his way of rising to the occasion to support a local economy that hinges on myriad farmers, growers and food purveyors in the region - among which he counts himself. And BerkShares is offering incentives for you to use them.īY HANNAH VAN SICKLE, POSTED ON BERKSHIREEDGE.COM ON MAY 6, 2022 Many vendors at the Great Barrington Farmers’ Market, which opens for the season this Saturday morning. The Berkshires has its own local currency-BerkShares, which have now gone digital. ![]()
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