Friendship Gardens of Cape Cod is a project that we started in 2023 to directly address food insecurity on Cape Cod. Our three goals have been to grow food for those in need, to help individuals learn to grow their own food, and to build community within our volunteers and with the people we serve.
Each year, we grow fresh, organic vegetables to give to those in need. In 2025, the food was grown in two gardens: one on the grounds of the West Falmouth Friends meeting and one on the grounds of the East Sandwich Friends meeting. The food is typically grown with regenerative gardening techniques, harvested weekly during the growing season, and given to the Falmouth Service Center (a local food pantry) and the Wampanoag homeless shelter in Mashpee, respectively.
In addition, in 2025, Friendship Gardens also had a 9-week program in the summer of 2025 at the Falmouth Service Center during which we partnered with Service Center to help their clients learn to grow their own food. We provided taste tests of lettuce and gazpacho, gave away lots of plants, pots, seeds, and composting materials to the clients, and encouraged them in their efforts to grow vegetables. We gave away one raised bed and 3 LED-lighted etageres to individual clients. We also started a new garden in East Sandwich, installed raised beds, and then helped residents of the Mashpee Wampanoag homeless shelter start their own garden by donating raised beds, soil, plants, and seeds.
In 2026, we are expanding by adding a new 800 sq. ft. growing space within the Berry Patch Community Garden on the Tony Andrews Farm in E. Falmouth. We plan to use this space to grow additional food for the Service Center, as well as continue our programs from the 2 previous years. In addition, we hope to provide 10′ x 10′ plots free to food-insecure individuals so that they can grow their own food. The details of this are still in progress, but we’ll post them here as soon as they are available.
This project has been a joy. We worked together and built a small community of gardeners committed to improving food security. In addition, we developed a strong connection to those at the Service Center and the Wampanoag homeless shelter that we serve.
What can you do?
There are multiple opportunities for you to make a difference:
— In East Sandwich, the project leaders are Trish Garland and Alan Burt. You can talk to them to find out what is planned for this year. Similarly, Steve Gates leads the project in West Falmouth and the new Berry Patch garden.
— We welcome help at every stage of this project, including planning the garden, preparing the beds, growing the seeds, working in the garden, delivering food to the Wampanoag shelter, and fund-raising.
— We are always interested in new ideas about how we can better address the issues of food insecurity on Cape Cod.
We welcome everyone, including those with no previous gardening experience.
So please join us!
Contacts: Steve Gates, Trish Garland, Alan Burt
Friendship Gardens is a project of The Peace Abbey. If you would like to support this project, please write your check to The Peace Abbey with “Friendship Gardens” in the memo line.