Gaining Ground
Gaining Ground grows organic produce for hunger relief with help from volunteers of all ages and abilities, who work and learn in our fields. In short, we grow food and we give it away to people who need it. For free. This refreshingly simple approach lets us focus on meeting the needs of our volunteers and the people we help feed. These two aspects of our work are closely intertwined—one wouldn’t work without the other.
We work hard to grow high-quality produce, provide an exceptional experience to each volunteer, serve the needs of our recipients and maximize the generous support of our donors.
Who We Feed
Throughout the harvest season, produce from Gaining Ground’s farm goes to food pantries, meal programs and shelters in Greater Boston and Eastern Massachusetts. Our approach is local and sustainable—most of our produce is distributed within 20 miles of our farm and within 24 hours of harvest.
Some groups use our produce to prepare a free meal distributed to people who need it. Others give it away as part of providing free food to people who need it. Organizations we support include:
Bedford Food Pantry—provides free groceries to any local resident who can establish need. Free community dinners are held weekly throughout the school year.
Boston Area Gleaners—partners with farms to distribute produce to Food for Free, Greater Boston Food Bank and over 60 other local food pantries.
Bridge Boston Charter School – utilizes our produce in nutritious meals served daily to 339 economically and socially disadvantaged students.
Community Teamwork—coordinates our free farmer’s market with its nutritional programs for 75 Head Start families in two sites in Lowell.
Food for Families – offers free farmer’s market coordinated through Concord and Carlisle’s Councils on Aging and Community Services
Haley House– provide 9 meals weekly to homeless, low/no-income, and housing insecure men and elders in the South End community
House of Hope—offers a safe home and meals for about 75 single mothers and their children in four sites in Lowell.
Loaves and Fishes—exists as a mission of love and faith to provide food and temporary support services to residents of Ayer, Devens, Groton, Harvard, Littleton and Shirley.
Lowell Transitional Living Center—provides meals, emergency shelter, services and supportive housing to 180 people daily who are hungry, homeless, or who need support in the Lowell area.
Open Table—offers weekly community supper programs and food pantries in Concord and Maynard to more than 300 guests.
Pine Street Inn—provides the largest permanent supportive housing, emergency shelter, job training and placement, street outreach for homeless men and women in New England
Rosie’s Place—offers free “shopping” in its pantry to over 1,800 women monthly and serves over 100,000 healthy, delicious meals a year.
Sudbury Food Pantry—distributes our freely selected produce to about 40 families per week from Sudbury and over 50 other towns.
Westford Council on Aging—partners with a senior housing site in Westford to offer a free market supporting 40 residents.
Meaningful Volunteerism
Volunteers of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds perform almost 70% of the work in our gardens. We attract more than 2,500 volunteers every growing season—from 3rd graders to people in their 80s, from Scouts to corporate groups, from prep school athletes to people with disabilities. We believe that everyone has something to contribute, from planting beans in the ground, to tying flowers and herbs into bouquets for drying, to chopping wood for sugaring and harvesting cherry tomatoes.
We offer hands-on educational and community service opportunities for individuals and groups. Volunteering at Gaining Ground offers:
A chance to engage in meaningful hands-on work
Knowledge of where food comes from and how plants grow
An introduction to food insecurity and our hunger relief partners
An opportunity to learn about sustainable farming practices
A change of scene from your usual environment
