About Us
Shorefast is a Canadian registered charity established in 2004 by Zita Cobb and two of her siblings, Alan and Anthony Cobb, from Fogo Island, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada.
Since the beginning, the charity’s goal has been to build economic and cultural resilience on Fogo Island, a 400 year-old outport fishing community critically impacted by the decline of the cod fishery and the related moratorium established in 1992.
Today, Shorefast’s activities include a holistic set of initiatives and businesses based on Fogo Island that hold relevance to community economic development. Its practices are aimed at unleashing the power of place and building new models of place-based economic development.
With an enduring commitment to Fogo Island, Shorefast is now expanding its work by collaborating with other communities, big and small, to share insights and practices that demonstrate that local communities can thrive in a global economy.
We start with place.
We lead with questions.
We embrace the tangle of holism.
We practice a posture of hospitality.
We see art as essential.
We bring an entrepreneurial mindset.
Our Model
Shorefast’s innovative model for community economic development has been featured in case studies and academic publications by Harvard Business School, Michigan State University, Memorial University and more.
Our Team
Meet the individuals that make up the team at Shorefast and its related community business entities.
As a girl, she was afraid the island would sink. A childish worry, a fairytale dread. But she’d seen how the ocean sometimes slipped its leash. Storm surges lifted fishing rooms off their foundations and set them adrift in the harbour. She couldn’t help thinking the sea might some day rise high enough to swallow Joe Batt’s Arm. That the island might take on water like a punky ship and go under.
— Newfoundland author Michael Crummey from the script of Far Away From Far Away
Fogo Island
Set on the eastern edge of the north Atlantic Ocean, Fogo Island is the largest of Newfoundland’s offshore islands. Home to a distinct history and culture, an ever-evolving economy, and a thriving local arts community, the island is an increasingly desirable destination for visitors and new residents.
Art, in the form of short films, helped prevent resettlement of Fogo Islanders in the 1960s.
The Fogo Process
The Fogo
Process
We have a long history with film. Fogo Island was the location of the now legendary community filmmaking project in the late 1960s knows as the Fogo Process.
Our History
2004
Zita and her brothers Alan and Anthony Cobb create Shorefast, a Canadian registered charity based on Fogo Island
2007
The first Great Fogo Island Punt Race To There And Back is held, highlighting the significance of the Punt, a traditional wooden boat, to the island’s history and culture
2008
Shorefast launches Fogo Island Arts, a residency-based contemporary art and ideas organization
2008
New Ocean Ethic, the first iteration of Shorefast’s environmental stewardship work, is created to establish Fogo Island as a model community for a more harmonious relationship with the ocean and its resources
2009
Shorefast supports a quilters’ workshop in St. John’s bringing together Fogo Island and Change Islands makers
2009
Growlers Ice Cream is launched as a seasonal community business in Joe Batt’s Arm celebrating locally-foraged berries.
2010
There is a formal ‘rock turning’ on the site of the future Fogo Island Inn. Shorefast celebrates the opening of the Long Studio by architect Todd Saunders
2010
International designers are invited to Fogo Island to collaborate with local makers on the creation of furniture and textiles for Fogo Island Inn
2013
Fogo Island Inn opens as a community business, offering a place-based luxury hospitality experience based on a regenerative model
2013
Fogo Island Arts’ first show opens at the Fogo Island Gallery at Fogo Island Inn
2014
Fogo Island Workshops, a furniture and textile social business is established, as a result of demand for the furnishings at Fogo Island Inn
2015
Fogo Island Fish is established by Anthony Cobb and Janice Tompson, to develop the domestic restaurant market for premium cod and other seafood from Fogo Island
2016
The National Film Board produces the short film Hand. Line. Cod spotlighting the fishers of Fogo Island who continue to catch cod by hand, one fish at a time.
2016
Shorefast completes the restoration of the Society of United Fishermen’s Hall, home of Fogo Island Workshops
2017
Fogo Island Geology Centre centre launches in the former St. Simon’s church, home of Canada’s first community-based geology program
2019
Shorefast obtains a Certification Mark for its ground-breaking Economic Nutrition Label, a model for price transparency
2019
Shorefast launches the Punt Premises on Fogo Island, an interactive cultural interpretation centre dedicated to carrying forward the history and knowledge of the inshore fishery
2021
Seaweed cultivation on Fogo Island is explored in partnership with Fogo Island Cooperative Society as a potential diversification opportunity
2022
Shorefast’s first Community Economies Report is published
2023
Fogo Island Inn celebrates its 10th year of operation alongside the opening of a new Foodways restaurant on Fogo Island.
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