For the eleventh year, independent businesses and community members in the Monadnock Region will celebrate Plaid Friday the day after Thanksgiving. This year's event falls on Friday, November 27, 2020.
Learn More: Plaid Friday 2020
Individuals will wear plaid on Plaid Friday to show support for the local economy and their commitment to spending more of their dollars at locally owned businesses this holiday season. Last year, nearly 500 community members pledged to participate in Plaid Friday. "After a decade of urging people to get out on Plaid Friday and visit their favorite locally owned businesses, we need to proactively plan for whatever COVID-19 throws at our community next month," said Jen Risley, TLC Monadnock Program Manager. "We're planning for all our usual activities -- while adding new virtual ways to participate. (Stay tuned for details!) We want to keep our movement strong and our community safe."
Plaid Friday celebrates the diversity and creativity of local and independent businesses. It's a fun and festive alternative to the "Black Friday" consumer frenzy perpetuated by big box stores. This event originated in Oakland, CA to bring back the times when shopping for friends and family was a pleasurable and leisurely activity. Many locally owned businesses will serve as Plaid Friday Hubs, photographing customers decked out in plaid and answering questions about this event.
View Plaid Friday Hubs
Some participating businesses will offer specials to honor the day and thank community members for their support. Specials will be posted at tlcmonadnock.com/specials.
Plaid Friday is part of the Shop Indie Local movement growing throughout North America. From November 1 to December 31, Shop Indie Local encourages residents to choose local and independent businesses for more of their holiday purchases.
Join the fun and support our local restaurants by playing Peterborough Restaurant BINGO! Starting this weekend (10/9), pick up your BINGO cards at participating restaurants and play to win some cool Peterborough swag. Every $10 purchase per visit earns a stamp on your card. Every completed card wins a prize and is entered for larger prizes.
Participating restaurants: Aesop's Tables & Events, Beepa and Lulu's Restaurant, Thai Cafe, De Olla Burritos, Harlow's Pub, Kogetsu at boiler house, Nature's Green Grocer, Nonie's Restaurant & Bakery, Pancho's Pizza, Post and Beam Brewing and Waterhouse Restaurant. Dine-in, take-out, gift cards and merchandise all qualify. Restaurant BINGO runs through the end of the year.
For more, email community@peterboroughnh.gov.
Originally published in Four Legs & A Tail
This article highlights a different kind of four-legged friend, a wonderful one-year-old Chinook dog from Keene, NH named Chuck. Chuck and his owner, Dan Brown, volunteered to promote this year’s Plaid Friday event in the Monadnock Region and throughout the state. Photo to right: Chuck shown in comic relief wearing an Official State Tartan of NH (a.k.a. Plaid) tie. Please keep reading to learn more about Chuck and Plaid Friday.
Chinooks, the official state dog of New Hampshire, were bred as sled dogs in Tamworth, NH, by Arthur Treadwell Walden in 1917. Walden was an arctic explorer and sled dog driver. “Chinooks are smart, gentle, strong, and love New England winters,” Dan shared. To learn more about Chinooks, see the Winter 2018 Four Legs and a Tail issue.
“He and I routinely take a walk through the downtown and on most Saturdays through the Farmers’ Market.” Dan continued. “Chuck can also be found on the rail trail, at the Surry Dam, Stonewall Farm and sometimes chasing trout in the Ashuelot River. His favorite things are meeting people, educating them about his officialdom, and belly rubs. His least favorite thing, like most dogs, is being told to ‘leave it.’”
Chuck takes none of our New Hampshire businesses for granite. His LupinePet Eco collar and leash, made from recycled plastic bottles in Conway, NH, is the color granite, of course. As big buy local fans, Chuck and Dan love Plaid Friday.
Plaid Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, celebrates the diversity and creativity of local and independent businesses. It’s a fun and enjoyable alternative to the big box store “Black Friday” consumer frenzy. Also, it’s a way to show your support for our local economy. Please plan to wear PLAID all day on November 27.
Last year, Chuck’s interest in Plaid Friday sparked after seeing a poster highlighting another Keene-based dog named Chloe. She was sitting outside of Prime Roast Coffee Roasters on Main Street, sporting a plaid coat complete with plaid ear coverings. Chuck was smitten.
So, he and Dan dreamed up an annual pet photo contest, a fun way to educate people about Plaid Friday. We made Chuck the inaugural winner to get things started. “He now thinks of himself as an Economic Stimulus Chuck,” joked Dan. “As a sort of an Ambassa-dog, Chuck hopes everyone will join the Monadnock Plaid Friday gala, with the tag line: Wearing plaid gets a discount, ties optional.” Stay tuned for more Plaid Friday details!
Why did Dan pick the name, Chuck? “So, a person can enjoy Chucking the chin of Chuck the Chinook,” answered Dan. “Chuck’s official AKC name is Forever Greene Moses Fisk. He was born to a mom from Vermont and a dad from here in Cheshire County. Chuck is a nephew by kennel to Charger the Chinook, a Vietnam veteran.”
Following in his Uncle’s paw prints, Chuck befriended members of the 238th Medevac Helicopter Co, NHANG. “He wants to give further howldies to Operational Support Airlift Detachment 18, The National Guard members helping with the COVID crisis, and all New Hampshire Servicemen and women away from home,” said Dan. “He thanks you for your dedication and awaits your safe return.”
We look forward to seeing you and your pets in plaid on Plaid Friday! Know of a working dog, cat, or another animal I should highlight in a future article? I’d love to hear from you! Please email me at marketing@monadnockfood.coop.
Join us for the Better Together: Building Equitable Communities in the Monadnock Region campaign from October 19 through November 13. All gifts given on TLC’s crowdfunding platform during this time will benefit Monadnock United Way’s (MUW) Better Together Annual Campaign.
The Better Together Campaign goal is $1,277,000 and it is crucial that we hit this target to help our neighbors in need. Too many people in our region are silently suffering. We may not see or experience the extent of their pain and stress. But it exists.
Consider this. Prior to COVID-19:
These statistics are likely to get worse in the months to come.
Monadnock United Way and our partner agencies fight for children, education, and financial stability in every community throughout our region. With your support, we will eliminate fear and uncertainty. We will lift up our region. We will make it vibrant in the face of hardship.
For more information, please visit MUW.org.
To mark Indigenous People’s Day on October 12 -- and hear Native stories from Native people -- we invite you to a free virtual screening of the film GATHER on October 6 at 6:30 p.m. GATHER features the work of Native communities building sustainable foodways to improve health and food security.
Register today!
The film highlights Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation in Arizona, establishing an indigenous café and recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation in South Dakota, conducting nutritional studies on bison; and the Ancestral Guard, environmental activists from the Yurok Nation in Northern California, working to save the Klamath River.
After the film, we will host a live discussion with Sanjay Rawal, Award-Winning Filmmaker and Director of Gather, and A-dae Romero-Briones, First Nations Development Institute Director of Programs – Native Agriculture and Food Systems. We thank our partners, Monadnock Food Co-op, Monadnock International Film Festival and Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition for co-hosting this event. This event is free, but registration is required. We hope you’ll join us!
Indigenous Peoples' Day falls on the second Monday of October, offering an alternative to Columbus Day. This holiday honors and celebrates Native American people -- their history, culture and present-day experiences. While not an official holiday in New Hampshire, the City of Keene passed a resolution earlier this year to recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day -- joining with three other New Hampshire towns: Dover, Durham and Hopkinton.
“This is an important transition we’re making -- a transition from being a European-centric community to a people-centric community for all people who have lived here and live here now,” said Keene Mayor Kendall Lane at last year’s Indigenous Peoples' Day event at Keene State College.
“Indigenous people were in the Americas by 1492, we were the first astronomers, geographers, physicists, doctors, botanists, on and on. We were the first on this land. Let’s acknowledge it and let’s teach it,” said Donna Moody, Franklin Pierce University Adjunct Professor and Tribal Elder in the Abenaki Nation. “We’re rooted here, our story is here, our language is here, our ancestors are buried here. Let’s acknowledge it and let’s teach it. Let’s address the underlying issues of bias and oppression.”
She continued, “When these issues are being addressed and progress made, then we really have begun to address the issues of the genocide of the land, the disappearance of language, the disappearance and erasure of our histories.”
This year, New Hampshire Farm to School and the Indigenous NH Collaborative Collective introduced the Indigenous New Hampshire Harvest Calendar curriculum highlighting local, indigenous crops, recipes and activities. The curriculum is divided into four seasons and follows the Abenaki method of measuring time, the 13 Moon Calendar. Please check out this resource and don’t forget to get your free ticket to the film GATHER to learn more about indigenous foodways beyond New England.
Whether you're looking for a little plaid flair or aiming to don plaid from head-to-toe to celebrate this year's Plaid Friday, we want to help. Stay tuned for our Virtual Plaid Friday Pop-Up Shop in October.
Also in October, we’ll host an online introductory webinar with Michael Shuman called "Rebooting Your Community After COVID - How to Invest Locally Using Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401ks" on October 15, 2020, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This event is free, but registration is required. If there’s enough interest generated at our introductory workshop, we’ll work with Michael to offer a full workshop on this topic in our region (hopefully live!). The workshop would cover the twelve types of local investment opportunities available in almost everyone’s backyard (some that are likely to beat the returns from Wall Street). It would also highlight what next steps we can take to shift millions of dollars of capital into local businesses struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope to see you virtually at our October offerings!
Our first TLC 4WARD crowdfunding campaign raised $14,028 for six locally owned businesses in the Monadnock Region, NH. "This campaign empowered 253 individuals to support six local businesses that they don't want to live without," said Jen Risley, TLC Monadnock Program Manager. "Our goal was to leverage our technology to help locally owned businesses weather the COVID-19 crisis, meet shifts in community needs and rapidly seize emerging opportunities." TLC 4WARD, designed to help rural communities recover more quickly from the COVID-19 crisis, enables residents to contribute to local businesses and organizations through online transactions. Participating businesses included: Archway Farm in Keene, NH added more offerings to their self-serve farm store in response to COVID-19, which required more storage space. Through TLC 4WARD, the farm raised the funds needed to upgrade their electric service to support this new storage equipment.
"A big thank you to everyone who has donated," shared Mark Florenz, owner of Archway Farm.
CC&D's Kitchen Market in Keene, NH met their campaign goal in less than 24 hours. They will purchase essential safety equipment and supplies for the catering arm of their business.
"There is great kindness in this world and AWESOMENESS in our community," said Denise Meadow, co-owner of CC&D's Kitchen Market. "We thank this amazing community for supporting our local small business, for sharing photos, stories and experiences, for referring us to your friends and families, for donating meals so we can together thank our essential workers and for buying meals for strangers, friends, volunteers and superheroes."
Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene, NH invested in a refrigerated trailer to expand its Curbside Pick-Up program, launched in response to COVID-19.
"We are extremely grateful for our community's support of our Curbside Pick-Up infrastructure," said Michael Faber, Monadnock Food Co-op General Manager. "Our expanded refrigerated storage space will help us serve more customers, helping us better serve our community in the months and years ahead."
Orchard Hill Breadworks in Alstead, NH will use funds to support small dairy farms and artisan cheesemakers hit hard by the pandemic. They will feature local dairy products on their pizzas, sold each Tuesday to raise funds for local non-profit organizations.
"A huge thank you to everyone who supported us in this campaign," said Cara Campbell of Orchard Hill Breadworks. "We are so grateful to be able to support small, local producers in this time of so much uncertainty."
Prime Roast Coffee Roasters in Keene, NH raised 170% of their goal to purchase a second battery to power their electric bicycle used in their new “BySpoke - Beans by Bike” program, a doorstep delivery service. They will donate access funds to Monadnock Alliance for Sustainable Transportation to support future bicycle programming.
"We want to share our community bounty so all funds over our goal will go to the Monadnock Alliance for Sustainable Transportation (MAST)," said Judy Rogers, owner of Prime Roast Coffee Roasters. "Support will help promote their next Bike to Work Week and Bicycle Month in 2021."
Village Roots Permaculture Farm in Alstead, NH will purchase and install a walk-in cooler with a cool bot unit boosting their ability to provide fresh, healthy and safe food to their community.
"Like many local farmers, COVID-19 boosted sales at our farm," said Marty Castriotta, owner of Village Roots Permaculture Farm. "This surge focused our efforts on upgrading our food handling and processing capacity. Thanks to everyone who chipped in, we reached our goal in four days!"
Visit this TLC 4WARD campaign
This fall, we will welcome back community economist Michael Shuman for a virtual visit to our region. In 2016, Michael spoke about pollinator enterprises -- self-financing businesses committed to boosting other local businesses. This time, he’s back to help us invest more of our savings into locally owned businesses and community. "When the pandemic recedes, we all will be called upon to take extraordinary steps to revive the local businesses that serve as the foundation of our communities," shared Michael. "One critically important step will be for you and other members of your community to move your investment capital from Wall Street to Main Street." The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock will host an online introductory webinar with Michael called "Rebooting Your Community After COVID - How to Invest Locally Using Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401ks" on October 15, 2020, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This event is free, but registration is required.
“There are real alternatives [to Wall Street], but few know about or consider them,” said Michael. “In fact, you can invest in everything that matters to you. You can put your money into that neighborhood grocery store you love, your little sister’s first house, or your nephew who needs to pay off high-interest student loans.”
Michael will offer us a way to make our community more resilient -- to prepare for future global crises -- and help us move more of our dollars into the businesses we don’t want to live without. While this workshop targets community members with tax-deferred retirement accounts (401k or IRA), we encourage others to attend such as local business owners looking for new sources of capital and individuals looking for new ways to solve our local economic challenges.
“If you’re smart about local investing, you can do this in a way that provides substantial, stable financial returns and lowers the risk of Wall Street investments,” continued Michael. “Plus, these commonsense local investments wind up strengthening your community, your local resilience, and your tax base.”
If there’s enough interest generated at our introductory workshop, we’ll work with Michael to offer a full workshop on this topic in our region (hopefully live!). The workshop would cover the twelve types of local investment opportunities available in almost everyone’s backyard (some that are likely to beat the returns from Wall Street). It would also highlight what next steps we can take to shift millions of dollars of capital into local businesses struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. “Workshop participants will learn a fundamentally new way of thinking about their world, their community, and their money,” stated Michael. “And a fundamentally new way of acting.” Michael Shuman, a leading visionary on community economics, serves as Director of Local Economy Programs for Neighborhood Associates Corporation and Adjunct Professor at Bard Business School in New York City. He is also a Senior Researcher for Council Fire and Local Analytics, where he performed economic-development analyses for states, local governments, and businesses around North America. His three most recent books include “Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: How to Invest Locally Using Solo 401ks and Self-Directed IRAs”; “The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing Pollinator Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity”; and “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street.” Thank you to our event partners: Green Energy Options, Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, Monadnock Food Co-op, The Local Crowd, Vital Communities and Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship. We hope you’ll join us!
Before we close, we wanted to share a few TLC Monadnock updates. First, a really big thank you to everyone who contributed to our TLC 4WARD crowdfunding campaign that wraps up on August 31. All six of our participating businesses surpassed their goals. Collectively, we raised over $14,000 from 253 supporters for Archway Farm, CC&D’s Kitchen Market, Monadnock Food Co-op, Orchard Hill Breadworks, Prime Roast Coffee Roasters and Village Roots Permaculture Farm: tlcmonadnock.com/4ward. Two full crowdfunding campaigns ran on TLC Monadnock during the pandemic. The Keene Sentinel raised $46,986 to help local journalism thrive and Sharing Housing collected $10,203 to support the development of an online course that will teach people how to create healthy, happy shared homes (a great way to boost affordable housing options in our region). View all our past campaigns at tlcmonadnock.com/tlc. Please check out our latest live TLC Monadnock crowdfunding campaign from Friends of Public Art: http://c-fund.us/qb9. They’re working to transform a negative space at the Keene Airport into a welcoming sculpture park. They hope to raise enough funds to purchase their first sculpture, created by local artist Adam Schepker with reused materials from the airport. They will place this sculpture next to the newly formed Mt. Monadnock Labyrinth by Katie Schwerin. Finally, thank you all again for your support for these campaign teams and TLC Monadnock as a whole. Together, we collected $212,584 for twenty-four crowdfunding campaigns -- campaigns that build a more local, green and fair Monadnock Region.
The City of Keene launched a new website on Keene’s Sustainable Energy Planning process. The website includes a roadmap of pathways, strategies, and tools to achieve Keene’s energy goals, and you can listen to stories to learn more about tools like Community Power.
The Keene Energy and Climate Committee and City staff are looking for your ideas and feedback. Please, take the survey on how Keene should define renewable energy as the City develops an energy plan, and tell them what you think of the draft vision statement for the planning process. You can visit KeeneEnergyPlan.com to learn more.
For the eighth year, let’s shine a light on local food, farms and our Monadnock Region food system during New Hampshire Eats Local Month, a month-long celebration of our state’s harvest in August.
Our food system includes all the pieces needed to bring local food from the farm to our plates: the soil, farmworkers, transportation networks, markets and more -- everything needed to grow, harvest and distribute these goods to us. These pieces come together to form our local food system. Please dig in and enjoy this bounty of updates!
The Cornucopia Project, based in Peterborough, cultivates community health through edible education at nine elementary school gardens, learning kitchens, and a student-powered educational farm. “Learning comes to life in the garden,” shared Lauren Hudd, Programs Director at The Cornucopia Project. “Students who work with [us] show increased interest in nutrition and agriculture, impacting their future choices and vegetable consumption at home.” Despite COVID-19, The Cornucopia Project’s educational farm continues to sell organically grown produce to local restaurants, institutions and community members. This year, they have also donated produce to their local food pantry, provided remote lessons to 250 students and grew over 3,000 seedlings for home gardeners. And their best news of 2020, they just received a two-year Farm to School grant from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to expand their programs to more schools in our region!
This year Food Connects, a food hub based in Brattleboro, VT, built a 1,000 square foot cooler and freezer and completed a crowdfunding campaign for their “Growing Local Food Markets in the Monadnock Region” project. This campaign, run through The Local Crowd Monadnock, raised $10,000 to enhance food safety and expand farmers’ access to markets in the Monadnock Region. Due to COVID-19, Food Connects experienced a 200% increase in sales year over year from March to June. “We are delivering food to local co-ops and markets, hospitals, school meal programs, and buying clubs in record numbers,” shared Alex McCullough, Food Hub Manager. “This diverse group of customers is allowing us to continue supporting farmers and finding outlets for their food.”
"We must continue to strengthen our local food system by building regional infrastructure for farmers and other food producers,” said Richard Berkfield, Food Connects Executive Director. “The more resilient our local food system is now, the more prepared we will be to weather future storms."
Stakeholders have come together to envision “The Food Collaborative,” an effort to create a Keene-based business featuring food preparation and storage space, processing equipment, and facilities for food business entrepreneurship and education. This collaborative seeks to enhance food security for all community members while providing opportunities for economic vitality.
These infrastructure needs were identified through a partnership project between Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC) and The Community Kitchen, Inc. (TCK), funded by the You Have Our Trust Fund in 2017. This fund made a second investment in the group in 2020, supporting a collaborative proposal for infrastructure needs, including accessibility signage for the Walpole Farmer’s Market, bottling equipment for the Greater Falls Food Hub, dairy equipment installation and training for Stonewall Farm, and a 12-week farm-to-restaurant-to-pantry project. This last project involves the purchase of locally grown foods that Machina Arts Kitchen and ArtBar in Keene will prepare and freeze for pantry and hot meals guests at TCK.
Open meetings are held on Zoom on first Thursdays from noon to 1:30. Anyone interested in participating may contact Sarah Harpster at tckgleaner@gmail.com.
Antioch University’s Community Garden Connections in Keene shifted its usual growing season outreach. Instead of supporting partner organizations’ gardening efforts in person, they provided gardening opportunities remotely. They offered container garden kits to their partners, including big buckets of soil (made from Antioch’s own compost), seeds of easy-to-grow plants like beans and step-by-step instructions. Just add water and sunshine. This way, instead of individuals gathering at community garden plots, they could maintain their distance and green thumbs at home. Community Garden Connections continues to produce food for the Community Kitchen at various sites in Keene and their Westmoreland garden site. They also have an extensive collection of free seeds available by request. Just email communitygardens@antioch.edu with the quantity and variety or for more details.
This June, the Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC) launched, "Food & Gardens for a Resilient Monadnock" -- a new website providing gardening and food access resources: sites.google.com/prod/view/foodgardensmonadnock. "We are experiencing an unprecedented moment with the COVID pandemic which has made us re-examine our supply chains and how we get our food,” said Roe-Ann Tasoulas, MFCC Director. “Many people in our region are feeling increased anxiety about how they are going to get food on their tables. Building resilience through gardening and better information on how to access food can help.”
On August 18, 2020, Monadnock Food Co-op and Monadnock International Film Festival (MONIFF) will co-host a virtual screening of the documentary film 2040. This film explores what 2040 could look like if we embraced solutions like regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, and climate justice. The film asks viewers to explore "What's Your 2040?" The film starts at 6:30 p.m. and a live post-film discussion will follow, with Monadnock Region community leaders in the areas of regenerative agriculture, food and farming, energy, transportation and housing, equity and social justice and cooperatives. This event is free, but registration is required. “A dose of inspiration and optimism is just what we need right now, and 2040 offers plenty of both,” said MONIFF Board Chair, Deirdre Fitzgerald. “It’s the perfect film to celebrate NH Eats Local Month. Eating local strengthens our communities, nourishes our bodies, and sustains a healthy planet. This documentary shows how, through the power of community, we may already have what we need to tackle climate change head-on.”
Since 2012 the Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD) has offered low-cost farm equipment rentals to area farmers. They expanded their fleet by purchasing three new offerings (no-till drill, vegetable transplanter and 4-row corn planter), plus a walk-behind BCS Tractor to support local gardeners. Additionally, local dairy farmers will receive equipment rentals for no charge this growing season.
The Keene Public Library invites new and experienced gardeners to a series of free virtual garden talks hosted by UNH Extension Master Gardeners. “Gardening in a Time of Climate Change” presented by Sandra Pickering on August 6 at 11 a.m. and “Putting the Garden to Bed” presented by Joy Ackerman on August 20 at 11 a.m. Please register online. Thank you to all the individuals, programs, policies and initiatives that continue to build more robust local and regional food systems in our corner of the state and throughout New England. Together, we’re cultivating healthier citizens, communities and economies.
This March Keene Housing Kids Collaborative wrapped up a successful TLC Monadnock crowdfunding campaign to help kids access opportunities in our community -- opportunities that cultivate a successful adulthood. We wanted to share these updates with you to inspire our community and cheer Kids Collaborative on!
We send gratitude and hope to all Keene Housing Kids Collaborative (KHKC) supporters.
Since mid-March, when the realities of Covid-19 forced community activities for kids to close indefinitely, and school switched to remote learning, KHKC worked to re-imagine our role as connector for kids living in Keene Housing.
Be well and keep in touch.
The Local Crowd Monadnock - Keene, NH
