NEW LEADERSHIP
Spring 2023
A MULTI-STAKEHOLDER COOPERATIVE OF
FISHERMEN AND SHAREHOLDERS
Meet our new 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 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 our Caretaker BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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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 received a BS in Environmental Science from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University. She worked as a consultant for the solid waste management industry. After moving to NH, she has served on local Zoning and Planning Boards and on the UNH Cooperative Extension Advisory Council for Sullivan County and was an active mentor for local 4-H clubs. A long-time worker at the Upper Valley Food Coop, she has a passion to support local farmers and secure accessible markets for producers and consumers to reap the benefits of healthy food. She joined NHCS to support and advocate for NH seafood availability to a larger population.
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Meet our ADVISORS
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Andrea Tomlinson is the Founder and Executive Director of the New England Young Fishermen's Alliance (NEYFA), inspired by her work as General Manager of NH Community Seafood from 2015-2022. She is an active member of the Local Catch Network, the National Seafood Council Task Force, NH Food Alliance, Seafood Nutrition Partnership, Seaharvesters of America and a founding organizer of a burgeoning national Young Fishermen's Alliance.
Dr. Lynda Brushett is an Emeritus Consultant with the Cooperative Development Institute (www.cdi.coop) 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 is the 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.
Why We Started: The NH Waterfront
Since 1976, our local seafood has been going directly to global auction, leaving New Hampshire. In the last decade, drastic cuts in quotas for vital groundfish species increased financial constraints on our fishing community, and the continued high cost of fuel have threatened to end this proud tradition.
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Alarmed about our future, fishing boats from Seabrook, Hampton, Rye Harbor, and Portsmouth Harbor organized a harvest coop. For the past eight years, we've been working together to better protect marine resources and fish more selectively.
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TODAY we are a brand new, enthusiastic team of food systems advocates and experts ready to restore operations and deliver the freshest local fish and seafood direct to you.
Our Community: Local Fishermen and You
With NH Fishermen being an endangered species, we are eager to work with New Hampshire consumers to keep our local fish and shellfish in the state. We helped create a Community Supported Fishery (CSF) to provide members with the freshest possible fish and shellfish, while we support New Hampshire fishermen and their livelihood.
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We urge you to join our movement to take back our vital marine resources by signing up for our CSF, eating at one of the restaurants that participate in our RSF, or purchasing from us at Farmer's Markets.
Our Mission: The NH Waterfront
The maritime fishing industry, a vital element of the economy, culture, and history of the New Hampshire Seacoast, has been in crisis for for over 5 years. We are addressing this crisis by increasing the recognition and appreciation of the interdependent roles that the fishing industry and the consumer play in our local ecological economy.
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This is a pioneering effort intended to reconnect the local consumer base with New Hampshire commercial fisherman via a new marketplace for locally sourced seafood—a direct market from "Fish to Dish". In doing so, we hope to provide local fishermen a fair market for all the species they catch and to provide the consumer with access to a wide variety of fresh locally caught seafood throughout the season, better insight into the supply chain that brings seacoast seafood to their table, and direct input about the choice and diversity of fish they consume.
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The cultivation and nurturing of this direct relationship between local fishermen with local consumers is intended to increase demand for local seafood, to promote community awareness and engagement in marine resource issues, and to support our local and regional economies through the preservation of the livelihoods of local fishermen and the supporting our NH working waterfronts.
