Joan O’Connor wonders how her good friend, Monica Rico, reaches out in so many directions.

With her daily schedule of volunteer work and dedication to bringing healthy, organic food to the Granite State, it’s a wonder how she gets it all done.

“She’s always a risk taker, multi-tasking,” said O’Connor, who lives near Rico in Henniker. “I’ve worked with her, so I know. I say, ‘Oh my God, Monica, slow down.’ ”

That’s not happening anytime soon. Rico accepted a new, food-related path in life just three months ago, working as the executive director of New Hampshire Community Seafood, a not-for-profit organization.

In that role, Rico supports the local small-boat fishing community, working with the seacoast captains, overseeing the distribution of their fresh fish and shellfish across the state.

She’s the boss, the manager who’s in charge of the budget and everything else connected to the group. That’s why O’Connor nominated Rico for Hometown Hero distinction. She’s spent the past 15 years creating and running businesses that help bring the farm-to-table lifestyle to light.

She wants to make healthy eating second nature, something that never crossed her mind 15 years ago, before she started a family.

“I was not interested in food and farming,” Rico said. “When my son was born, I became more interested in where our food comes from. I wanted to know what I was feeding my family.”

And so, Rico left her job as a front-desk receptionist in 2011, after six years. She had already begun working on her family’s certified organic vegetable farm in Contoocook the year before.

Soon, her work defined her life, or at least part of it. Rico did everything at her family farm. The tilling, preparing the beds, amending the soil organically, cultivating crops. She was responsible for retail and wholesale pricing, and schmoozing at farmers’ markets.

And she huddled with other local farmers to promote the idea of cost-sharing equipment.

“I have many years as an organic farmer,” Rico said. “It works as my focus, to build stronger, more resilient food systems.”

She founded the Henniker Community Farmer’s Market in 2012 and continues to be the face of the event today.

She stages her winter market Thursdays at the Congregational Church of Henniker from the first week of October through the last week of May.

The summer market is held on Thursdays beginning in June and lasting until the end of October at the Henniker Community Center Park at 57 Main Street.

“That’s her baby,” O’Connor said. “It’s a partnership with the town and it’s good public relations. She kept it going and my head just spins because she gets no money and she pays for musicians and she pays for vendors.”

There’s also a special deal: spend $20 in food stamps and you get $40 worth of food.

Elsewhere, Rico volunteers on the board of directors for the New Hampshire Agrarian Commons Trust, preserving the landscape to support local food systems.

She’s on the board of the Kearsarge Food Hub, and as a member of the Community Engagement Committee, she plans events and fundraising.

As the volunteer/founder of Meals for Henniker, she donated food out of her home during COVID, raised $25,000 from private donors, businesses and grants, and transported, stored, sorted and distributed perishable and non-perishable food items.

And thanks to her effort during the life-changing COVID quarantines, Rico handed out more than 600 boxes of groceries to Henniker families in 60 households over 12 weeks.

She participated in other food-related causes, like serving as the conference coordinator for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire for five years.

She was responsible for many facets in that role, including planning “all aspects of the annual NOFA NH Winter Conference,” according to Rico’s resume.

These days, she continues raising her three children, the oldest of whom is 15. She’s also in the midst of moving with her partner to Webster.

O’Connor says Rico’s responsibilities are overwhelming, the perfect background needed to gain Hometown Hero status.

“It gives me a headache thinking about what she does,” O’Connor said.

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