Joseph’s mentorship has inspired the likes of Drew Harrison, founder of Charleston’s Green Heart Project, working to build garden-based experiential learning projects and school programs to educate students and cultivate community. For more information about Green Heart Project please visit: www.greenheartsc.org
He also mentored Nikki Seibert Kelley, the current Food System Consultant at Wit Meets Grit, former Director of Sustainable Agriculture for Lowcountry Local First, and former Executive Director of Fields to Families. For information about Wit Meets Grit please visit: www.witmeetsgrit.com
Joseph’s most recent community partnership is with Earth Heart Growers, a farm to school initiative that began at Malcolm Hursey Elementary, a public school in North Charleston, SC.

Joseph and Helen’s sponsorship of Earth Heart Growers (EHG) made the vision possible. In 2016, they began welcoming adolescent students from EHG’s partnering schools to the farm for on-site agricultural education.
“Joseph, Helen (his Wife), Alexandra Seaman and I volunteered in the fields starting in springtime of 2016, when this vision first became a reality. We started by taking 15 adolescents to the farm. We saw right away how being in the wild outdoors, working the land, feeding the animals and sharing a meal made the students’ spirit shine. Each time they became more open, more aware and more conscious in nature – just as Dr. Maria Montessori described in her Erdkinder Curriculum. It just makes sense for the adolescents to be in the fields.”Liz Ramirez – EHG Executive Director.
In 2016, two public Montessori schools – middle schools from different parts of town – began working together in the fields. Here, they learn agricultural methods from an experienced teacher: Joseph Fields, the farmer, himself. They learn to prepare a meal from the farm-grown produce, under the guidance of an inspired local chef. Further, they learn how to work within their community by managing an in-school produce-delivery program (CSA), “The Healthy Basket,” which allows them to package and take the local produce home. Through exposure to the farm program, the students learn to be adaptive thinkers, and how to build and maintain their surroundings through tasks such as fixing benches, building garden beds, composting, and recycling. For more information about EHG or how to get involved please visit: www.earth-heartgrowers.org