"NH Community Seafood is Resuming Operations"

NH Community Seafood ceased operations late in Summer 2022 and have spent the month since then reorganizing and strategizing in preparation for the cooperative's relaunch in Spring 2023. Read the full announcement below to learn about their new executive director, caretaker board, and advisors.

"The tides are turning at NH Community Seafood! We are working diligently to restore our organization so that we can deliver fresh fish and seafood to you again this season! We anticipate restarting our deliveries in May— stay tuned for details.

We will continue the proven and popular parts of our business model including the Community Supported Fishery (CSF), Restaurant Supported Fishery (RSF) and the Flexible Fish shares. We are also adding exciting new programs to dismantle cost barriers and give more people access to this sustainably sourced and nourishing protein. We are streamlining communications. To do that well, we need you to carefully read our upcoming emails. We expect to have our online ordering platform back up and running in the coming days. Stay tuned for announcements on when and where you can resume getting your fish and seafood deliveries in the next few weeks.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Monica Rico, and I am honored to serve as the new Executive Director of NH Community Seafood. I had the pleasure of serving as the NHCS site volunteer for the Henniker location for the past five years. This gave me valuable insight into how the CSF program functioned from the consumer side. I plan to leverage that firsthand knowledge to increase efficiencies and streamline the customer experience going forward. 

I have been working to strengthen our local food system in a variety of capacities over the years. Community building sits squarely at the core of all of my work. I am firmly rooted in a vast network of vibrant and passionate food systems partners and advocates. I am so excited to call on these networks as we energize and grow NH Community Seafood across our region and into the future. I hope you’ll join us!

I am supported by a newly formed Caretaker Board of Directors composed of some of the best and brightest food systems advocates in our region. We are also joined by a team of professional advisors who are committed to lending their expertise in support of our mission. We are grateful for the hard work and dedication of our former Board of Directors and staff who laid the foundation of this organization, and we are thrilled to take the helm. Today is a new day. We have a brand new and enthusiastic team. The future is bright.

We are busy connecting with all of our customers, site hosts, processors, and our fishing community. As we work to restore operations, I welcome your feedback. I am committed to clear and transparent communications. I also ask for your patience. Soon I will be hiring a few key teammates, however, at the moment I am the organization’s only staff member.

We are excited to move forward, but we must also acknowledge our past. As many of you know, last year was rocky for our organization. Ultimately, the cooperative decided to push the pause button. A large number of our Community Supported Fishery members showed their solidarity and faith in us by opting to take a credit for a future season rather than a refund. This support was vital and we can’t thank you enough. We are so pleased that we’ll be able to honor those promises soon.

I am so proud to take on this role. I look forward to meeting you as we support our working waterfronts and to expand access to fresh and sustainably sourced fish and seafood throughout our region.

Meet Our Executive Director

Monica Rico is a longtime food systems advocate and community organizer based in Henniker, NH. Years spent working on her family’s organic vegetable farm and managing a farmers market have deepened her understanding of our regional food system’s strengths and weaknesses. Her time as Winter Conference Coordinator for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of NH (NOFA-NH) allowed her to cultivate relationships with countless local and national food systems experts. At the start of the pandemic, she was able to mobilize these connections and form a rapid-response food distribution effort nearly overnight which delivered food to many families in need in her home community. 

She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Kearsarge Food Hub and NH Agrarian Commons, two nonprofit organizations on the forefront of the local food movement. She is the founder of Henniker Community Market, a farmers market in its twelfth season. She also served as the host site coordinator for the NHCS Henniker delivery location for five years prior to joining the organization as staff. She brings experience of how the cooperative functioned from the consumer side and is eager to streamline operations, grow the organization, and expand access initiatives. 

When not focused on food systems work, Monica finds tremendous joy honing her craft as a relief printmaker and teaching printmaking workshops in her studio, Wood Thrush Farm Print Shop in downtown Henniker, NH. Community building is at the heart of all of her work, and she firmly believes that nurturing human relationships is the cornerstone of vital and resilient food systems. She and her partner, Tim, along with their three sons, two giant dogs and one fluffy cat are currently building a homestead on land that has been passed down through their family for eight generations on the top of Pond Hill in Webster, NH.

Meet NH Community Seafood's Caretaker Board of Directors

Carolyn Sweet, Chair - Director of Planning, Development, and Public Relations for Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA). She has supported regional food system efforts in Philadelphia, Delaware & Maryland; in NH, serving the MUCH Coalition, and on the Boards of Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition and The Sustainability Project; and on the development team for Vermont Everyone Eats. 

Rebecca J. H. White, Treasurer - Public and Government Affairs Associate at the Hanover Co-op Food Stores and Auto Service Centers of New Hampshire and Vermont. Her work includes local and national advocacy for child and day-care legislation; regional fisheries; soil health and waste diversion. 

Katelyn Porter, Secretary - NH Food Hub Network Program Manager at NH Food Alliance. Katelyn brings over a decade of experience working throughout the food sector and brings her passion for sustainable local food systems to help carry out the mission of NHCS. 

Sean Dempsey is a lobster fisherman for Fisher Lobster, which is a NH business providing lobster to the seacoast area.

Tanya McIntire is currently serving on the Sullivan County Cooperative Extension Advisory Council and owns the building that will house the River Region Market, the market location for the Claremont Growers Collective. 

Meet NH Community Seafood's Advisors

Dr. Lynda Brushett is an Emeritus Consultant with the Cooperative Development Institute a non-profit organization that builds cooperative leadership and enterprise in the Northeast. Dr. Brushett has more than thirty-five years of rural community and economic development experience helping individuals, economic development corporations, cooperatives, educational institutions, state and federal agencies and municipalities achieve their business and organizational goals.

Allan Reetz, Director of Public & Government Affairs at the Hanover Co-op Food Stores. Allan's food systems work includes six years serving on numerous food advisory boards at the organizational, state and national level.

Andrea Tomlinson is the Founder and Executive Director of New England Young Fishermen's Alliance. She served as the General Manager of NH Community Seafood for six years."