ABSTRACT
This chapter offers the example of CLiCK, Inc. (Commercially Licensed Co-operative Kitchen), a 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Willimantic, Connecticut and based on co-operative values and committed to a just, locally based, sustainable, and healthy food system, as a model for other communities to address their own social, economic and environmental needs even as we are figuring out how and in what directions CLiCK will continue to grow. CLiCK is not a fixed project; rather, it continues to evolve as we navigate our local assets and deficits in an ongoing attempt to better meet our community’s needs. We also use this opportunity to weave together a number of theoretical concepts that act to frame CLiCK’s innovative and emerging structure while helping to guide its future development. By way of introduction, these two theoretical concepts are Julian Agyeman’s “just sustainability” (2003 and 2013) and Elinor Ostrom’s revisioning of the commons (1990 and 1999) that together helped to anchor our practices into a larger social ethos.
