This year, Farm Manager Doug Wolcik, Assistant Farm Manager Hannah Lawson, and Market Manager Paula Jordan are leading a strong, enthusiastic team. We welcome Sage Hess and Alex MacLellan as field crew members, Blair Kimble as a summer field hand and volunteer supporter, and Macayla Cote as market intern.

Sage is excited and grateful to be at Gaining Ground this season, where she says she is “learning from inspiring people and doing inspiring work.” With former experience on a hydroponic farm, this is her first season with organic, no-till farming. Her spark to do this type of work started when she was an outdoor education teacher in Olympia, Wash., where she taught plant identification. Her goal for this season is to learn as much as she can and to always be her best self for the volunteers, the vegetables, and the organizations with which we partner.

Since high school, Alex has worked on a variety of farms throughout New England. He views farming as a living system that provides a model to construct his philosophy of life. A Pied Piper for our young volunteers, Alex has a growing preference for farms providing experiential education. His goal at Gaining Ground is to increase confidence and skills to eventually manage his own operation.

Now an undergraduate student at UCLA, Blair served as a junior board member for two years in high school. At that time, she facilitated the connection between Gaining Ground and several recipient organizations in Lowell, and she started our current Farm Team program, where high school students consistently volunteer during the summer. Blair has returned to Gaining Ground this summer to help engage volunteers in the mission of hunger relief and to learn more about the numerous different kinds of fruits and vegetables grown on the farm.

Macayla jumped right into the job during our first market in Lowell. As an intern for the Head Start Market Program, she talked with families about making smoothies with kale, shared herbs and recipes, and helped participants choose the produce they would like to bring home. Macayla is a student at Middlesex Community College with a major in Environmental Health. She understands the importance of nutritious vegetables and how they can support good health. Her favorite vegetable is zucchini, and she highly recommends making this zucchini chips recipe with a dash of cayenne!