Granite Guild purchased the former restaurant, located at 834 Lancaster Road in Northumberland, NH and is currently renovating it to become a multi-purpose resource for Coos County; the Coos Catalyst Center.
The building had languished, vacant and for sale for a number of years and became symbolic of the devastation wrought on the community with the closing of the Wausau Paper Mill in 2007. Granite Guild is transforming this building as an evolving hallmark of rebirth and new hope. The Coos Catalyst will have three components; Food Pantry, Small Business Annex and Community Center. All three components will be available to the public (fee may be charged to “for-profit” entities and renting of Community Center space).
The Community Center will host events, workshops and other activities.The Small Business Annex is intended to be an incubator for emerging new businesses that lack the resources offered by the Coos Catalyst Center. Small Business owners will be able to slot specific time to use the office pods, equipped with computer, linked to high-speed internet and our Conference room. Conference room will host an 86″ flat screen interactive white board (perfect for classes and on-line meetings. We are exploring possible apprenticeship programs in an effort to become a reliable workforce pipeline . Our Food Pantry will be state-of-the-art in an effort to streamline the process, eliminate food waste, and making possible to request food remotely. We will install greenhouses to conduct vertical hydroponic gardening to provide fresh produce to the Food Pantry on a year round basis. We will partner with the University of New Hampshire, 4H and SAU58 for the operation of the greenhouse program and to provide mentoring opportunities. We will be utilizing bar coding and an online shopping cart that will provide mentoring in inventory control.
Granite Guild projects a $60,000 budget for renovations and a $50,000 budget for the greenhouse project.
Please click the Donations page link above to donate.
The University of New Hampshire Coos Extension is working with Granite Guild, Granite State Market Match, New Hampshire Food Bank, USDA, Ocean State Job Lot and others to establish a first-of-a-kind Food Pantry to serve individuals and families in need within the community. Part of our effort will be participating in a gleaning program to provide fresh produce for public distribution.
Some additional programs are:
- AHEAD – 17 different Consumer workshops
- New Hampshire Statewide Family Engagement Center – Parent-Teacher-Student Advocacy & Liaison
- ProtectUSKids – Cybersecurity, Cyberbullying, Time Management and other skills for Young People
- University of New Hampshire, Coos Extension – Healthy Eating & Nutrition Workshops
- North Country Healthcare Consortium – Healthcare Screening
- Various arts of all genres (visual, literary, performing) workshops & classes
- Coffee house night
- Open Mic Night
- Author/Poet booksignings
- Art Exhibitions
- Outdoor Movie Night
- Yoga Classes
- and more in the works
If you have a Program, Workshop, or other services that you wish to offer through our Community & Arts Center, please contact us. If you are an artist, author, poet, musician, performer, artisan or crafts-person, or want to be a volunteer please contact us.
Want to donate, no matter how big or small, every dollar will help make this happen. Please click the Donations link above and fill out the information and click the appropriate link for PayPal or Venmo. Help us rebuild our community!