When the cod fishery collapsed in the nineties, Fogo Island lost its economy almost overnight. What came next — slowly, imperfectly and without a guarantee of success — became one of the most compelling stories in Canadian community development. Shorefast, the charity behind the Fogo Island Inn, wasn't built on the logic of charity. It was built on the logic of place. Every business decision, from the number of rooms in the inn to where every dollar gets spent, runs through a single question: does this strengthen the local economy?

Tasha Freidus, Shorefast's Director of Education and Entrepreneurship, joins Challenger Cities to unpack the model and what it means beyond Fogo. We talk economic nutrition labels, the forgotten community pillar of the economy, why local banking matters more than most people realise, and how a platform launching  ...