CO-OP RECEIVES $50,000 MATCHING GRANT FROM THE WALPOLE FOUNDATION, PASSES TWO-THIRDS OF ITS FUNDING GOAL

The Great River Co-op has received a $50,000 matching grant from the Walpole Foundation to help capitalize the business.

“The significance of the Walpole Foundation’s support can’t be overstated,” says Kim Mastrianni, president of the co-op’s board of directors.  “The foundation understands the key role of agriculture in the Great River region’s past and present economies, in preserving open space, and a way of life that the people who live here cherish.  With its gift, the foundation is investing in the co-op’s mission to secure and strengthen that vision and the region’s agricultural economy.”

The Walpole Foundation’s gift also lifts the co-op past the two-thirds mark in its fund-raising campaign. 

Building the co-op’s store on Route 12 in Walpole, installing equipment, purchasing inventory, and operating the store until it pays its own way is a $2.1-million venture, according to projections developed by the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the nationally-respected CDS Consulting Co-op.  Commitments by MEDC and Bensonwood, the store’s developer, total $1.4 million, leaving the co-op to raise $700,000.  The Walpole Foundation’s grant brings the co-op more than two-thirds of the way to reality.

If our members and the community will join in the effort, the store could be built a year from now.  All together now!