Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation updates Beaufort County Council on St. Helena community farm plans

St. Helena Island — The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation told Beaufort County Council on March 24 that the St. Helena Island Community Farm (formerly the Henry Farm North project) is moving from planning into active demonstration and planting across an 80-plus‑acre site.

Jenny Stevens, chief executive officer of the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, told the council the organization received title to the land in 2020, used federal and state grant funding to develop a farm plan and has since shifted to implementing that plan in phases.

The project is intended as a demonstration farm to show landowners alternative approaches to production, Stevens said. "We actually changed the name officially to the St. Helena Island Community Farm to make sure that completed in 2023," she said, and the group later presented implementation steps and community outreach it has completed.

Alexis Martin, a forester with the center, described work already completed and planned. The site includes a community garden area where the organization installed 10 raised beds through a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grant and registered the site with the USDA "People’s Garden" program. Martin said the group has planted an 18‑acre longleaf pine area for silviculture, begun food‑forest cultivation, completed soil testing, and held cover‑crop and sunflower workshops with community partners.

Martin described a strategy that avoids a single commercial monocrop across the whole tract; instead the plan uses a regenerative‑agriculture and agroforestry approach with a mix of demonstration areas. She said community volunteers and local partners — including the South Carolina Black Farmers Coalition/Soil Stewards and the NRCS — have participated in site work.

Speakers flagged several constraints the project still needs to resolve. Project staff said they are hiring a farm manager, lack equipment storage on site, and must stay within the site’s impervious‑surface limit discussed during the meeting (value not specified precisely in the presentation). Stevens and Martin also said the project relied on multiple grant sources and partner organizations, and that the farm team would continue to seek local volunteer support.

Council members asked about boundaries, timelines and next steps. Councilman Glover said he has visited the site and asked staff to clarify the property boundaries; Councilman Larson suggested future progress reports; Councilman Brown and others praised the agricultural programming and the prospect of fresh produce for local residents.

The center asked the public and county staff to "come grow with us" and encouraged residents to volunteer. No formal council action or vote was taken on the update; the presentation concluded with a short question-and-answer period and council members invited the team to return with future progress updates.

Why it matters: The St. Helena Island Community Farm is positioned as a demonstration project intended to provide hands‑on examples of agroforestry, food‑forest and silviculture options for landowners on St. Helena Island. The project ties federal and state funding, technical assistance from the NRCS and local nonprofit partners to community outreach and small‑scale food production.