I’m Hilary, and I founded Random Harvest, a worker-owned cooperative grocery, café, and community hub in Craryville, New York. When I first moved here, the only grocery option was a chain store stocked with industrially produced food, and there was no local gathering space. I envisioned a place where people could access healthy, sustainable food and come together as a community. When I found this empty building, I thought, someone should do something here. Then I realized I could be the one to make it happen.
We now host dinners, art shows, fundraisers, film screenings, and healing clinics on our second floor—creating space for conversation, collaboration, and connection. By sourcing food from local farms that use regenerative practices, we support the land and the farmers who steward it while helping to address climate change, since these methods rebuild soil health and capture carbon. When people shop, share a meal, or attend an event, they become part of a network that connects producers, customers, and neighbors, building relationships that nourish both the land and the community.
What also makes Random Harvest unique is that it’s a worker-owned cooperative. There are only about 1,000 worker-owned cooperatives in the U.S., and ours is the only one in the area that combines a grocery, café, and community center. By centering cooperative ownership, we create a relational economy that gives workers the opportunity to share in decision-making and ownership, creating a fairer, more inclusive model where everyone has a stake in the success of the whole and in profit sharing.
What I personally get from my contribution is a sense of place, home, and community. I walk through the door every day and see people I know, people I care about, and people who care about me. It’s beautiful to watch the connections woven between customers, staff, farmers, and producers.
We now host dinners, art shows, fundraisers, film screenings, and healing clinics on our second floor—creating space for conversation, collaboration, and connection. By sourcing food from local farms that use regenerative practices, we support the land and the farmers who steward it while helping to address climate change, since these methods rebuild soil health and capture carbon. When people shop, share a meal, or attend an event, they become part of a network that connects producers, customers, and neighbors, building relationships that nourish both the land and the community.
What also makes Random Harvest unique is that it’s a worker-owned cooperative. There are only about 1,000 worker-owned cooperatives in the U.S., and ours is the only one in the area that combines a grocery, café, and community center. By centering cooperative ownership, we create a relational economy that gives workers the opportunity to share in decision-making and ownership, creating a fairer, more inclusive model where everyone has a stake in the success of the whole and in profit sharing.
What I personally get from my contribution is a sense of place, home, and community. I walk through the door every day and see people I know, people I care about, and people who care about me. It’s beautiful to watch the connections woven between customers, staff, farmers, and producers.