Throughout its 12 delicious years, Charleston Wine + Food has been focused on consistently giving back to the community whose roots lie in exquisite southern cuisine. Year after year, we are honored to pour into the Charleston community + give back to this place that we call home. Charleston Wine + Food enriches the lowcountry culinary and hospitality industry by honoring local foodways, and sharing Charleston’s unique story with the world.
In 2005, a group of local culinary enthusiasts came together around an idea – to create an experience that would celebrate + showcase the area’s rich flavor through the lens of award-winning chefs, beverage professionals, and artisans. Every year since, Charleston Wine + Food strives to be a good steward of our city and its foodways by creating an annual economic injection that fuels Charleston’s vibrancy and growth.
The 2016 Charleston Wine + Food festival had a $9.1 million impact on the Charleston economy, which means that eighty-eight cents of every dollar we spend producing Charleston Wine + Food has a direct measurable impact on our city. Year after year, the economic impact of Charleston Wine + Food is more than triple the organization’s annual budget.
To celebrate the 12th year of Charleston Wine + Food, we will focus on the many ways that the festival contributes to our local economy through our #PourIntoCharleston campaign. Every ticket purchased pours into programs that support and pay tribute to our local growers and producers, scholarships committed to education in hospitality and tourism, and eco-friendly initiatives centered on reducing food waste. Throughout the festival season, we will highlight these efforts through a blog series, social media campaign, and installment in the Culinary Village.
Please join us as we #PourIntoCharleston.
*This blog post was written by our 2016-2017 Charleston Wine + Food CofC Fellows. Charleston Wine + Food has partnered with the College of Charleston to offer a communications senior capstone class the opportunity to work with the festival.