At Gaining Ground, food isn’t just something we grow and share with our neighbors—it’s also something we learn about together. Our community partners help us better understand foods that may be unfamiliar to us, and our food literacy efforts aim to give the people we serve the tools and knowledge to make the most of the fresh, organic produce they receive.

What Is Food Literacy?

Food literacy has long been part of the mission here at Gaining Ground. On the distribution side, food literacy means providing nutrition and culinary education hand-in-hand with our produce so that people are empowered to use every item they receive with confidence and joy. It also means reducing food waste and supporting cultural foodways.

“We try to promote nutrition and culinary education alongside the fresh produce that we donate to help our guests be more informed in their consumption of healthy foods, as well as for optimal utilization,” says Allison Goodwin, operations director at Gaining Ground. “As we’re engaged in a relationship rooted in reciprocity with our clients, we also learn from and receive lots of feedback about what they want to eat and know how to prepare.”

That feedback is more than a conversation; it’s a cornerstone of our crop planning. We listen when guests tell us they don’t enjoy a particular vegetable. Thanks to partner requests, in recent years, that’s meant phasing out or reducing crops like kohlrabi and fennel while introducing collard greens, jilo, and watercress.

“The food we grow at Gaining Ground of course is nutritionally and physically nourishing, but it also has the potential to be spiritually nourishing, or even healing, for folks who have been systematically separated from the foods that make them feel at home,” says Assistant Grower Maddie Weikel.

From Harvest to Home: Sharing Knowledge

Education is woven into our food distribution process from the ground up. Each week, Food for Families clients and partner organizations receive an email detailing what’s happening on the farm, what we’re harvesting, and how to make the most of it. A highlight of these updates is a featured veggie tip sheet, spotlighting one crop with nutritional info, prep and storage tips, and simple recipes.

These beautifully designed tip sheets, created by the organization Just Food, are available in English and five other languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Russian, and Mandarin, which helps bridge language gaps.

Some of our partners take it further, organizing cooking demonstrations or encouraging peer-to-peer recipe sharing. 

Education in the Fields

Our commitment to food literacy doesn’t stop at the produce table. The many school groups that visit each spring receive hands-on learning. Kids pull carrots from the ground, learn how soil and sunlight help turn seeds into vegetables, and begin to understand their own connection to food and nature.

“One thing that’s been such a privilege for me to witness is how some children make discoveries and learn about their food’s origins while at Gaining Ground,” Allison says. “That wonder and awe is part of what drew me to this work in the first place.”

“A middle schooler just yesterday was blown away by how much he could taste the familial relationship between carrots, parsley, and celery when he tasted the carrot greens as we were harvesting together,” adds Maddie.

Gaining Ground’s own staff also learns from the volunteers and our partner organizations that visit the farm.

“Community members have taught me about plants on the farm that we typically pull as weeds that are actually quite delicious such as amaranth, lamb’s quarter, and purslane,” says Maddie.

Looking Ahead

Food literacy at Gaining Ground is constantly evolving. We hope to secure funding for additional language translations of our veggie tip sheets, including Khmer, Arabic, French, and Vietnamese. 

When people are empowered with knowledge, they’re more likely to enjoy, share, and make the most of every nutritious bite. Much like a healthy harvest, we believe that’s worth cultivating.