Explore: Hunger Relief
May 27, 2022 • Christine Savage, Communications Manager
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “I could not be a poet without the natural world.” And it is in this spirit that we are bringing a celebration of art to the farm this year. Throughout our fields this spring, we have set up a self-guided farm tour of […]
April 14, 2022 • Jennifer Johnson, Executive Director
“Wow.” The clerk at my neighborhood grocery store took a pause from scanning the items I’d placed on the conveyor belt, a bit stunned by what he’d seen on the cash register. “These cherries are over $15. Do you still want them?” I looked at the not-very-large bag the clerk was holding and answered that […]
• Allison Goodwin, Program Manager
Each season at Gaining Ground brings challenges as well as successes; rewarding reminders of the impact and importance of our hunger-relief mission. Foremost among these in 2021 was the return of our volunteer program after a pandemic-driven hiatus. The joy of those first April volunteers was undeniable in their warm smiles, rolled-up sleeves, and dirt-caked […]
You don’t have to look very hard to find the parallels between Gaining Ground and the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest. “The work that Gaining Ground does is at the core of why the Community Chest does what we do: You grow food locally, you harvest it, and then you distribute it back to people with the […]
March 3, 2022 • Christine Savage, Communications Manager
This winter has proved to be an especially harsh one for people experiencing food insecurity. Supply chain woes and labor shortages left the shelves at some grocery stores sparsely stocked. Food prices are the highest they’ve been in years, making it more difficult for folks to afford the food they need. As a result, more […]
November 30, 2021 • Christine Savage, Communications Manager
On a bright, warm November afternoon two weeks ago, the Gaining Ground team gathered in front of the barn—some of us wearing t-shirts in the midday sun that filtered through the treetops along the edge of the farm. We set out hefty boxes and bags of harvested vegetables and got to work assembling and filling […]
• Gaining Ground
For November, we’re taking the opportunity to catch up with our recipient partner House of Hope, which runs programs and permanent housing services with the goal of ending homelessness in Lowell. They do this through a commitment to transitioning families experiencing homelessness into greater social and economic stability. As a part of their work, they […]
October 25, 2021 • Gaining Ground
This month we paused to catch up with our recipient partner Healthy Waltham, which promotes collaborative approaches to improving the health and wellness of under-resourced populations in Waltham. They do this through programs that increase access to healthy foods, provide nutrition education, and create opportunities for physical activity. We spoke with Operations Director Maria DiMaggio […]
July 30, 2021 • Christine Savage, Communications Manager
We know that food security in Massachusetts—and throughout the country—is caused by many interconnected social and economic conditions. The effects of the pandemic have added yet another layer of complexity to the issue. Looking at the populations that have been hit hardest by both food insecurity and COVID-19, it is clear that access to food—or […]
June 11, 2021
Our Food for Families market—serving the Concord and Carlisle communities—returns this month. Staff and board members pre-assemble produce fresh from the farm into grocery bags, which they deliver to the distribution site in Concord. Rain or shine, the market takes place Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., from June 19 – October 2, 2021. […]
May 3, 2021 • Allison Goodwin, Program Manager
Gaining Ground’s 2020 growing season was memorable for many reasons. A pandemic altered our lives and behaviors forever. Food insecurity skyrocketed, both in Massachusetts and across the nation. Our caterpillar tunnels were damaged by a microburst storm in April, and we reluctantly suspended our volunteer program for the first time in the organization’s 26 year […]
• Christine Savage, Communications Manager
Last March, as the pandemic swept across the country, it didn’t take long before the folks at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) started to hear stories of people in need of personal protective equipment—gloves, masks, hand sanitizer. So they set to work creating an emergency fund for grants to address these new needs, and […]
• Jennifer Johnson, Executive Director
“Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.How do you measure,Measure a year?” Musical theater buffs may recognize the lyric above from Rent and a song that explores how one defines the truly important events that occur during the course of a year. The Tony award-winning play celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and multiple casts have […]
October 29, 2020 • Elisabeth Elden, Board President
First and foremost, the board thanks everyone who made our year on the farm one of the most productive in our history. Despite some unexpected and challenging issues, we delivered over 440,000 servings of food and grew more than 110,000 pounds. Just a sampling of our challenges included COVID-19, which forced us to suspend our […]
• Allison Goodwin, Program Manager
Our newest recipient partner is the East Boston Community Soup Kitchen, which provides meals and groceries to those struggling with food insecurity, homelessness, and other challenges in East Boston. Our program manager, Allison Goodwin, recently interviewed the Kitchen’s founder and executive director, Sandra Niijjar, about her mission to feed her community. Sandra is second from […]
September 15, 2020 • Allison Goodwin, Program Manager
Partnerships are a vital component of Gaining Ground’s success. It is through our long-standing relationships with local hunger relief organizations that the nutritious bounty of the farm reaches thousands of our underserved neighbors each season. In response to skyrocketing food insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, we entered into several new partnerships this spring. GreenRoots […]
August 5, 2020 • Jen Flint, Board Member
As food insecurity surges, hunger relief organizations adapt to keep up “The numbers are staggering,” Erin Kuschner writes in a June 26 article on Boston.com. Food insecurity could affect one in eight residents of Eastern Massachusetts by the end of the year, according to the hunger relief organization Feeding America. That represents an increase of […]
July 29, 2020 • Allison Goodwin, Program Manager
This year has brought plenty of unforeseen challenges as well as growth, re-calibration, and hidden blessings. The COVID-19 pandemic in early March forced some of our largest partners, such as Boston’s Pine Street Inn, to temporarily stop accepting produce from Gaining Ground due to safety and logistical concerns. While some channels closed, other new partnerships […]
May 1, 2020
We donated 60% more produce this April compared to a year ago, thanks to two additional hoop houses providing warm shelter for more early spring crops. With the current pandemic, this increase has been well timed. At a time when fresh local vegetables are scarce, Open Table in Maynard and Concord Public Schools have gratefully received […]
October 28, 2019 • Fan Watkinson, Program Manager
For twenty five years, Gaining Ground has pursued its mission to grow and give away healthy produce for hunger relief with the help of volunteers and community. While the mission has been steadfast, the chapters along the way have evolved. During the past seven years, we have focused on increasing output on our 3.5 acres of cultivated land by […]
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