KEENE, N.H. (MyKeeneNow) — The Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship has received a $10,000 grant from the M&T Bank Foundation to support innovative solutions addressing critical community needs in food systems, childcare, energy, and housing.

The grant will fund:

  • Customized accelerator programs for food, farm, and family childcare entrepreneurs in the Monadnock region
  • Public pitch events to highlight the regional food and childcare sectors
  • Collaborative efforts among regional stakeholders to develop and share innovative solutions for food, childcare, energy, and housing challenges

Since 2021, the Hannah Grimes Center has offered sector-specific accelerator programs for food and farm entrepreneurs and recently introduced a specialized program for family childcare businesses in partnership with the Bringing It Home project.

The project’s vision is “More local food in more local bellies” and the partners are the Monadnock Food and Community Coalition, the Monadnock Food Co-op, Southwest Region Planning Commission, Hannah Grimes Center and others. The grant funding will help pay staff for their work on these initiatives.

The group is also working on identifying models for solutions to improve housing access in the region for all.

Additionally, the grant will support the Center’s ongoing efforts to pilot clean energy resources for entrepreneurs, including energy audit scholarships.