www. Char l es tonPhys i c i ans . com | www.Hea l thL i nksChar l es ton . com | 25 The idea began at a Charleston County elementary school as a simple way to make students familiar with how garden vegetables grow. But since that time 14 years ago, this idea, known as the Green Heart Project, has spread to other parts of the Lowcountry and is now viewed as a critical tool to show students the value of developing healthy eating habits at a young age – and as a way to help raise the state's national health ranking. “The Green Heart Project is one of many garden-based learning, or farm-to-school, programs across the state and the nation,” said Executive Director Jesse Blom. “We partner with 18 schools and operate one community-based urban farm. The purpose is to build educational garden-based projects and school programs through growing, eating and celebrating food.” The majority of Green Heart’s partner schools are Title 1 schools, which serve low-income students. These students often live in food deserts, as determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In many cases, food grown at the schools under the direction of Green Heart is sent home with the students to share with their families. “Our one-half-acre urban farm at the Enston Home is nested within an affordable housing community of low-to-moderate income residents,” Blom said. “The Enston Home is located within a food desert, and produce grown at the farm is sold to the community on a ‘pay what you can’ basis to ensure it is affordable.” Plus, Green Heart’s hands-on curriculum serves as an extension to the classroom; students learn how to keep the right bugs in a garden, which compost materials make for a healthy soil and how different foods contribute to a healthy lifestyle. “Our school gardens also help students learn teamwork as they work together to complete a task,” Blom said. “Some of our programs are directly tied to the science curriculum and help students with applications of concepts.” Currently, Green Heart engages 4,000 local students annually in garden-based learning. Their efforts are reinforced with the help of around 1,000 volunteers. “And we also employ 14 high school students in a paid summer internship program,” Blom said. “These gardens help all the students gain a sense of confidence and control over their ability to provide for themselves and encourage healthier individual behaviors.” Blom added that in the long run, he hopes Green Heart’s efforts will help grow a generation of citizens in South Carolina who proactively care for their health and the health of their neighbors. Based on a 2021 health report, South Carolina is only a breath away from hitting rock bottom. In its third consecutive year of researching all 50 U.S. states to determine its annual Community Well-Being Index, digital health company Sharecare and the Boston University School of Public Health placed South Carolina at No. 40 – identical to its placement in 2020 but four notches down from 2019. To move even a few places higher for 2022 and 2023, the state will need improvement in nearly every health category – especially in its dead-last domain of food access. “The state’s food access score is 10 points below the national average and ranked in the bottom six for the domain,” said Dr. Michael Rickles, vice president of research with Sharecare. “Food access is important for mitigating against health risks and chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression, joint pain and fatigue.” For South Carolina’s health to improve in just this one domain, Dr. Rickles recommended community garden projects and ventures such as Green Heart. “It would not only help improve the state’s community rank, which is South Carolina’s second lowest domain, it would most importantly contribute to individual well-being,” he said. The Green Heart Project was founded in 2009 as a small garden at Julian Mitchell Elementary School in downtown Charleston. The original intention was to give students from low-income households access to locally-grown, fresh fruits and vegetables. Now it’s a community-wide mission that is increasingly catching on across the state and the nation. “I’m constantly amazed at the interest, intellect and passion our young people have for environmental conservation, community engagement and physical health,” Blom said. “Their positive attitudes and hunger for learning inspire hope in all of our employees and volunteers to keep doing the work we do.” Our school gardens also help students learn teamwork as they work together to complete a task.
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