Greetings, friends of the Village Store! We're planning to send short email updates, about once a month, to keep you up to date on our nonprofit project to bring back the Thetford Village Store and expand it to add a café.
Meet Our Proprietor — Margaret Loftus
As some of you know, we're very lucky to have an agreement with a great proprietor for the Village Store & Café. Margaret Loftus is a longtime Vermont farmer and store proprietor who runs Crossmolina Farm and the Cookeville Market. She's excited to expand to Thetford, offering farm-fresh veggies, meats, dairy, and prepared foods in the store, and a fresh rotating menu in the café. Stop by and meet Margaret this summer at Crossmolina's Pizza Night!
Meet Our Architect — Doug Sonsalla
We're also very lucky to be working with Doug Sonsalla of Studio Nexus as the project architect. Doug and his family live in West Fairlee, and Studio Nexus is based in White River Junction. He has extensive experience working on projects that create gathering spaces for the community. Doug has already put together initial sketches of what the Village Store & Café may look like. The exterior sketch isn't final — it may change as we go through review — but you can see it on our Plan page.
Please Give!
To hit our goal of a grand opening in spring 2028, we need to raise about $1 million by the end of this year so we can pay for construction in 2027. Some generous early donations helped us buy the property and begin design work, but now we're focused on raising construction funds. If you're in a position to consider a gift, it will have a meaningful impact on our timeline. Please reach out by email if you would like to discuss, and thank you!
— The Thetford Center Community Trust Board (Tim, Deecie, Sarah, Dom)