Green Heart Project FY2025: A Year of Celebration, Strategy, and Rooting Down With Our Partners

I feel like we say it every year when our Annual Report comes out, but wow, what a year it has been for The Green Heart Project! This year’s report highlights major milestones from last year and the impact of our work that our supporters make possible, across the Charleston area. It’s proof that together, we continue to make an impact as we grow minds and cultivate community.

If you want to jump right in, you can click on the report below to read it! If you have a minute, here’s a quick recap of the past year:

2025 Annual Report

By the Numbers

We’ll start with some numbers. This past year, we recorded:

4,680 hours of hands-on, garden-based learning with students
4,448 pounds of fresh produce was grown at the Urban Farm at Enston Home.
382 total volunteers who contributed 2,534 hours towards the Green Heart mission
2,268 hours of Youth Internship and Apprenticeship work
1,119 customer interactions at our on-site, “pay what you can” Farm Stand.

As a reminder: these numbers just scratch the surface of what we accomplished. Make sure to check out the photos and stories in the report for more!

Celebrating Major Milestones

This past year marked the completion of two significant, multi-year projects:

5 Years of the Urban Farm at Enston Home: 2025 marked five years since the founding of the Urban Farm and we’ve accomplished all of the five-year objectives that we set out to achieve. We’ve also built great momentum to carry into the future.
4-Year Partnership with USDA-NRCS: We completed a successful four-year partnership with the US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which provided a massive $534,702 over four years to support our programs. This partnership allowed us to deepen partnerships and make a broad impact across Charleston.

Cultivating Healthier Futures

Surveys of participants of our Farm to School programs showed that our programs:

Improved students’ attitudes towards eating vegetables
Increased likelihood of students eating fruits and vegetables if they grew them
Allowed students to become more comfortable working in the garden

We also invested in youth workforce development:

This past summer, we employed 6 high school students in the 6-week Youth Internship Program.
100% of interns said they would recommend the program to their friends and classmates.
83% of high school interns felt more prepared for career advancement

We also hired our first Green Heart Apprentice, Sam Wickersham, thanks to a generous sponsorship from The Boeing Company.

Community & Fundraising Highlights

Our annual events and fundraising partnerships played a crucial role in funding our mission:

The 15th Annual Harvest Dinner drew over 500 attendees to celebrate students and their garden accomplishments.
Our 2nd Annual Farm to Table Dinner was a massive success, raising $344,943 to support our farm-to-school education and food production mission.
Partnerships with three major music festivals (High Water, High Tide, and Riverfront Revival) raised an additional $143,908.

These are just a few of the highlights and stories that this year’s report covers, so we hope you’ll read even more!

Read the Full Report

We’ll close with a note of gratitude and a huge thank you to everyone who made this past year such a success! As we look ahead, we are nearing the completion of a strategic plan that will guide The Green Heart Project’s next 3-5 years, and we’re excited for all that is to come.