As told by Ben Lambert - The Register Citizen: The group, which included elected officials as well as residents from area towns, discussed employment, regional development and future growth.

LITCHFIELD >> Local elected officials and residents gathered for a discussion of economic development in the region Monday evening, as the Northwest Hills Council of Governments held the annual “NWCT Economic Development Summit” in the Litchfield Community Center.

The tagline for the event was “Think Regionally, Act Locally: Jobs & Vibrant Main Streets.” A series of successful and ongoing examples of economic development in the region were discussed, including the recent Gilmore Girls Festival held in Washington; the opening of the Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk; a teaching effort that enabled business owners to receive a loan, then pay it off, as they bought the True Value hardware store in Winsted; recent recognition for KidsPlay Children’s Museum and Arethusa Farms; the NWCONNect initiative, designed to foster the possibility of fiber optic internet connections in the region; the planned food hub; and a planned Entrepreneurial Center at Northwestern Connecticut Community College.

The food hub, according to Bill Burgess, executive director of Partners for Sustainable Healthy Communities, is to be located in Torrington, and serve the area within 50 miles of the city. About $300,000 has been put into the project in the last two-and-a-half years, Burgess said, with another grant from the state Department of Agriculture recently obtained.

Here is what is happening in the "Food Hub" world - in New York City, where shoppers and diners can find delicacies from all over the world, there is hefty demand for food grown closer to home.

The taste for products from farms in the Northeast has led South Bronx-based Greenmarket Co., a nonprofit regional food distributor that serves as the middleman between farmers and buyers, to constantly expand the size and scope of its operation over the last half-decade.  Read more -