Hudson Valley Harmony: A Currency for Connection With Chris Hewitt

Chris Hewitt has redefined the local economy of the Hudson Valley through his work with the Hudson Valley Current, a unique barter exchange system, and his Kingston-based nonprofit restaurant, Tilda’s Kitchen. Together, these ventures are powerful models for community-driven innovation, keeping money circulating within the region and fostering deeper connections among neighbors. A native of Long Island, Chris’s journey to the Hudson Valley began in 2001 with a four-month road trip alongside his wife, Nicole. Eventually, they settled in Kerhonkson, and while raising a family, Chris focused on creating businesses that would strengthen local economies and promote collaboration. Through the Hudson Valley Current, which facilitates bartering and supports local businesses, and Tilda’s Kitchen, which champions the principles of local currency, resiliency, and community support, Chris has shown that true abundance can be built when we invest in each other — and when our money, in all its forms, stays right where it belongs: at home.

Fun fact: The Hudson Valley Current was incorporated as a nonprofit in January 2014. Since then, over 1.3 million Currents have been exchanged, all of which have stayed here in our local economy.

Want to know more about Chris? Read our exclusive interview below.

INSIDE+OUT: Where are you originally from and how did you wind up in the Hudson Valley?

Chris Hewitt: I grew up on the south shore of Long Island in Patchogue. I headed up to Rochester Institute of Technology for college and then returned to the island for five years with my future wife Nicole after we graduated. During that time, we published a national quarterly publication, X-press Magazine, out of Bohemia, NY, that was distributed in 22 US states and 5 provinces of Canada. We then embarked on a four-month road trip starting in late 2001 before settling in Rosendale, NY, and creating a new magazine—The Movement. Once Nicole and I had our two kids, Elias and Cora, we purchased a house in Kerhonkson and have been there for almost 20 years.

For those not in the know, tell us about The Hudson Valley Current and its origins.

Bartering is big in the publishing industry. I’ve been bartering with people since I started publishing in 1996. When I started publishing the regional monthly newspaper called Country Wisdom News in 2010, I always said yes to a barter transaction with our advertisers. Once I got up to about 20 barters, I lost track of who owed me what. Do I have one pair of shoes left to buy at the shoe store? How much food does that one restaurant owe me? It got out of control.

I had already attended a conference at Bard College in 2004 called “Local Currencies in the 21st Century,” and I was approached by Kingston resident David McCarthy—who is the Current’s co-founder and current board president—to launch a local currency in 2010. I knew that a local currency, also known as a barter exchange by the IRS, could help my publication keep track of the advertising barters, so I was on board with the concept right away.

The HV Current is a membership model. Tell us more about that.

There are about 450 members of the Current, a barter exchange for the Mid-Hudson Valley that allows people to exchange goods and services while guaranteeing that their money stays local. Every new member who signs up gets a free account that starts at zero, like any bank account. There are no fees for using the Current, and there is no interest charged for members who use their lines of credit. The Current allows people to essentially barter goods and services, but they assign a value to the exchange so that we can quantify the amount that we support each other and the amount of money that we can keep local. We have FAQs and videos on our website, but I like to remind people of our slogan: “It’s Just Money!”

What are Currents and how do members earn and use them?

The IRS calls one Current a barter credit or trade credit. People who sign up to use the digital app to exchange Currents, or people who use the Current cash, make the choice to accept or pay Currents when making a trade with a local neighbor instead of using dollars. In this way, we can make sure our money stays in our local towns instead of being sucked away to distant factories in countries that may not have the same values as us regarding environmental or labor practices, for example. The Current gives real teeth to the Buy Local movement because when we trade in Currents instead of dollars, that movement of money continues to circulate around our towns, which is called a multiplier effect.

There are two types of accounts—Business and Payroll. So a business, even a sole practitioner, can sign up for a free Current account and have access to the profiles and contact info of the other 450 members, almost like a business networking group. They can share the goods and services offered in their profile space and post free ads in the digital marketplace. An employee of a Current business member can choose to receive a percentage of their pay in Currents, which is a Payroll membership. I receive 10% of my pay in Currents each week. Our director of membership helps orient new and existing members and shares a variety of onboarding materials for new signups.

How do currents help sustain local economies?

Since the Current started circulating in 2014, over 1.5 million Currents have been exchanged and because of their multiplier effect, we know that they continue to stick to Main Streets. By using this local currency, we begin to inspire localized supply chains in which, for example, our farmers know the local restaurant owners, boutique employees know the people who make the clothing on the shelves, and local entrepreneurs have a variety of choices for marketing experts who live in our region and understand our communities. We’re building a community through an exchange mechanism that is resilient and able to resist stress in our national economy. During the massive recession of 2020, the usage of the Current tripled, proving our original post-Great Recession theory that the Current could stabilize our local economy during recessions. Throughout history whenever a local currency exists in a community, that region bounces back quickly from economic disturbances.

You also own, run and operate Tilda’s Kitchen, a for-profit business on bustling Broadway in Kingston. Tell us more about Tilda’s and its connection to the HV Current.

Although Tilda’s Kitchen & Market seems like a for-profit business, it’s a nonprofit project of the HV Current. I sometimes call Tilda’s an undercurrent because it helps people understand the Current faster. We built it as an engine for the circulation of the Current. Our little market in the back has its shelves stocked with Current member items, and our menu is loaded with ingredients from Current members as well. We are localizing our own supply chains to not only demonstrate how we can economically support our neighbors instead of shipping things all over the world but we’re also showing how a local restaurant can incorporate a local currency into their budget to maximize profits and have a significant impact on our local economy.

Now, because of Tilda’s, we have an average of 20,000 Currents exchanged every month. It has become the heart of the local currency, and we hope to continue inspiring new types of businesses to accept and circulate the Current.

Tell us about your chef and the menu at Tilda’s

Our slogan at Tilda’s is Community Inspired Global Cuisine and part of that community has been the exciting chefs who work or have worked at Tilda’s because they each bring a certain flair to our menu. When we were opening Tilda’s in 2020, we put together a panel of six local chefs who owned Asian, Latino, Caribbean and Creative American restaurants in Kingston. We all discussed a menu that would fit well in Midtown Kingston (because as a nonprofit community space we want to encourage the success of our neighbors), and we came up with the original breakfast and lunch menu. Since that time, we’ve added amazing Latin and Asian specials to the regular menu and we’re about to launch an expanded menu in January that will move most of our specials to the regular menu. We also have live music every Friday evening with a dinner menu that is quite exceptional, featuring seasonal menu items that are inspired by the local produce that we use. We also have a Saturday menu for our live jazz brunch. I work with my team to write all of the menus and construct the plate presentation, and think of it as an expression of my artistic side. In fact, I cook on the line every Friday as a way of relaxing after a busy week.

What are the signature dishes?

One of our biggest hits has been our Mayan Stewed Chicken, slowly cooked on the bone with young potatoes, onions, and a simple red broth. It’s served with rice and beans and a fresh spring mix salad with apples, carrots and cranberries. We also love to share our High Tide, Low Tide on Friday nights—grilled rainbow trout and shrimp with garlic and white wine sauce served with a side of sauteed white cabbage and a couscous salad with orange wedges and soy sauce. But one of our biggest lunch sensations has been the Buttermilk Fried Chicken served with slow-cooked collard greens and honey carrots.

How often does the menu change and when it does change, how do customers react?

In the early days I used to change the menu every Friday night when we used to feature one seasonal ingredient, like squash, and highlight it in each course of the menu. This used to keep everyone on their toes, and it stressed out the kitchen. So I’ve been working over the years to really dial in our regular breakfast and lunch menu that we serve Monday through Friday, with the seasonal creativity happening more on Friday evenings and Saturday brunch. This is why we’re ready to build a new menu—we’ve figured out which menu items our neighbors enjoy and what they want more of. It has been an exciting journey, and we continue to learn from our neighbors and farmers.

What do you love most about being in the restaurant?

What I love most about Tilda’s is that it’s not a regular restaurant. As a nonprofit organization with grant and sponsorship funding, we’re able to change the rules around what a restaurant is and what we can afford to do. For example, we have free soup every day and free rice and beans because we put all of our tips toward a free meal program. Our staff is happy to do this because we’re salaried employees and don’t accept tips. These individual donations are able to be paid forward to our community. We also provide free breakfast and lunch every last Tuesday of the month by having a local business sponsor who pays for a huge feast for the community. We share it all for free because of our mission to change the way we exchange things, so we can sit together as a community to share a meal without the barrier of cost getting in the way of our open tables. This is another reason I love the HV Current slogan—It’s Just Money—because justice is also built into this local money.

Talk to us about Midtown Lively. What is your focus on this project?

Midtown Lively is an evolution of our publications over the years. After I donated Country Wisdom News and all of its advertising accounts to Hudson Valley Current in 2015, it became a nonprofit publication. Since that time, we’ve been using our organization’s publications to create a narrative about keeping money local and supporting our neighbors. The focus of CWN was all good news about food, the land and the home. We often featured Current members in that publication and over time, it evolved to become Livelihood Magazine, which was distributed in Ulster, Dutchess and Columbia counties. When we decided in 2019 to focus all of our organization’s attention on Midtown Kingston in order to concentrate our staff’s attention and time on one business district, we decided to change the name of the publication again. We dropped the Hood in Livelihood and became Midtown Lively—Food, Art and Exchange in Kingston. We now only distribute to free newsstand locations in Kingston, but our focus remains similar. We use our monthly publication to shift the narrative around what money is and how we can improve the ways we exchange with each other. We feature one Current member each month and the rest of the publication is general interest in order to engage our community without discussing currency all of the time. In fact, I consider Midtown Lively to be another undercurrent. It helps our neighbors and Current members understand the Current just a little bit better.

What are the upsides and challenges of managing a nonprofit and for-profit business simultaneously?

We believe that we’ve invented something by combining two for-profit business models with a nonprofit community currency. In fact, I was invited to several conferences in Europe recently to discuss the unique hybrid models of Tilda’s, Midtown Lively, and the Current. One of the academic studies that we presented is called The Benefits and Challenges of Embedding Social Enterprises within a Community Currency System and we’re in the process of completing another study about our innovative Guaranteed Income program called the Pollinator Stipend. However, as far as challenges are concerned, running a nonprofit organization is very similar to running a for-profit organization—we have to take calculated risks while keeping the ship afloat. I just have the benefit of creating ships that have a local currency liferaft—a model that we are learning to share.

What does abundance mean to you personally?

Growing up with a Sicilian mother allowed my family to see abundance everywhere—in a smile, a story, a meal. We had a lot of joy, especially at the dinner table and we learned how to make everything from scratch. That means that we can always see abundance in food and for me, as a systems thinker, I can see abundance in the ways we feed each other and care for each other. I’m hoping to provide such an abundance of food in our towns that we can take that concern off the table for ourselves and our neighbors. Let’s provide food as a human right and then share meals with each other while we discuss how we can tackle other important issues that face humanity.

What are you most proud of when it comes to your career?

I think I’m most proud of my ability to navigate the public and private sectors. After 11 years of serving in an elected role for my community, I’ve learned so much about what people want and what we’re passionate about.

What events or projects do you have coming up that the Hudson Valley needs to know about?

Come by Tilda’s on January 27th to check out one of our FREE Open Table days in action. It’s so fun to see the mix of people who show up to enjoy food, music and community. You can also swing by any Friday for live music from 7 to 10pm or live jazz brunch on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm.

Tell us something about yourself people would be surprised to learn.

I don’t think people know that I have two kids in college and I’m very proud of both of them. Elias is studying psychology and art at UVM in Vermont and Cora attends Hampshire College with a focus on the arts, music and dance. We all grew up playing music and singing together and it makes me so happy to hear how talented they both are with a variety of instruments.

If you didn’t work in the restaurant business, which profession would you have chosen?

I used to own a restaurant on Fire Island when I was in my early twenties and I didn’t want to open one again until it could have a positive impact on my community. When I learned that a restaurant could help improve the circulation of our local currency, I was more than happy to start one up again. I feel like Tilda’s is more of an experiment in metaphysics and community building than a restaurant, so maybe I would have been a quantum physicist in a different life.

If you could have a meal with anyone, who would it be?

If the purpose of the meal is to enjoy and savor the food while we discuss the recipes and intricacies of the flavors, it would be with my wife, Nicole. We love traveling and eating at restaurants. We are great at it and we appreciate each other’s time and thoughts during our meals. But if the purpose of the meal is to sit and talk with someone to gather deep insights during a rare opportunity to chat, it would be with Ghandi. I’ve been inspired by his thinking since my first years in college and I still consider his wisdom around thoughts, words and deeds all the time. We’d probably sit mostly in silence while I gather all the positive vibes that I can, learn what I can, and nibble on a little low-impact meal.

What is your current state of mind?

I’m in a Current state of mind, pun intended, because all I ever think about is the flow of the HV Current. I think about its immediacy of being Current, in the now and present here in this beautiful moment. I think about its shocking effect, the Current of electricity, that flows between us and our lives. And I think about the flow of the river, the Current that drives the health of all water, the circulation of hydrology, and the element that connects me to you and you to me.

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Photos courtesy of HV Current + Tilda’s Kitchen

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