A Community Response to COVID-19 Business Recovery

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