The Green Heart Project

The Green Heart Project is a non-profit organization based in Charleston, South Carolina that builds school gardens and farm-to-school programs to educate students, connect people and cultivate community.  We currently oversee five school gardens and 12 school-garden programs in mostly low-income schools in Charleston, SC.  We serve 1,200 students (K-5) annually across those five school partners through a series of in-school programming, after-school programming and culinary classes.  Our in-school programming applies math and science classroom curriculum to hands-on learning applications in a garden setting.  Our after-school programing provides extracurricular education for students interested in learning about the connection between our food, our health and our environment with the help of volunteer mentors.  And finally, we partner with our local food bank to provide culinary classes to our students and their families to learn basic culinary skills and how to cook healthy meals together, sourcing some ingredients from our gardens.  Our after-school programming is based on the framework put forth in the 'Big Ideas - Connecting Food, Health, Culture and our Environment' put forth by the Center of Ecoliteracy.  

And come Fall 2017, our programming will include a hub urban-farm to provide programming to three additional elementary schools, two middle schools and a youth-training program.

As mentioned in our mission statement, we see our gardens and programming as a platform for educating students about the connection between our food, our health and our environment while creating an opportunity for building community among low-income students and engaged volunteers and community members.  Our values include: 

Integrity, Curiosity, Respect, Health, Gratitude, Stewardship, Inclusivity and Effort.