The Giving Garden® Loyalty Program

The Giving Garden® Podcast Episode 7 with Martina Halloran

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Full transcript of Episode 7

Martina Halloran: Welcome to The Giving Garden Podcast where we explore how small acts of giving can blossom into lasting change.

I'm your host Martina Halloran, founder of The Giving Garden and CEO of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care USA. In each episode, we highlight the power of giving, whether it's time, kindness, or resources, and how these acts can transform both lives and whole communities. Join me as we explore the ripple effect of giving and its lasting impact.

As we step into the heart of summer and reach the solstice, the longest day of the year, it feels like the right time to pause just for a moment to take in the light, the warmth, and everything we've gathered in these past months. This midpoint of the year offers a natural marker, like a deep breath between all that's happened and all that's still to come. And in that space, I find myself thinking about the conversations we've had on this podcast, the honesty, the courage, the generosity of every guest who shown up and shared what giving looks like in their real everyday lives. This episode is a reflection and a thank you, a way to ground ourselves in the stories we've heard, stories that remind us that giving doesn't always come with fanfare. Sometimes it's quiet.

Sometimes it's hard. But when it comes from a place of care and purpose, it can change lives, including our own. The solstice reminds us to take stock, not just of what we've done, but of who we're becoming. And as we look ahead to the second half of the year, I hope this moment inspires you to think about the kind of impact you want to have, big or small, loud or quiet. So today, I invite you to revisit the moments that moved us, challenged us, and reminded us of the power we each hold to give, to connect, and to grow.

In February, we sat down with Michael Altfest from the Alameda County Community Food Bank, and what resonated most was his unwavering commitment to dignity. Michael reminded us that hunger is not a food problem, It's an access problem. And access is a justice issue. He said something that stuck with me. There's more than enough food.

The issue is getting it to the people who need it most and doing it with respect. I shared during that episode that as a child, I was a free lunch kid. I know the sting of stigma and the quiet shame that can come from simply needing help. But Michael and the team at Alameda are shifting that narrative, making sure that food support is seen not as charity, but as a right. Over 50% of their food is fresh produce.

Their mission isn't just to feed, it's to nourish. Yes, they're feeding bodies, yet at the same time they are restoring dignity, confidence, and community. That conversation taught me that giving means showing up in ways that preserve humanity. Giving is access. Giving is justice.

In March, to honor International Women's Day, I had the privilege of speaking with Demi Knight Clark, founder of She Built This City, and director of partnerships at Join Osprey. Demi's fire is contagious. Her story took us from welding workshops to TEDx stages, from Pinewood Derby cars with her dad, to nationwide camps where girls learn to weld, build, and reimagine their power. Her work is about breaking barriers, about giving confidence where doubt used to live, about rewriting narratives and putting tools literally and figuratively into the hands of young women. Demi reminded me that giving doesn't always look like a donation.

Sometimes it looks like access to a torch or a blueprint or just a room where your voice is heard. She said something so powerful: If you don't see it, you can't be it. And that's why she's built platforms for visibility, mentorship, and confidence. That conversation demonstrates that giving is creating and making space. Giving is believing in someone before they believe in themselves.

Giving is equity in action. I spoke with Erin McClair, the President and CEO of Project Bread. Erin's leadership is shaped by lived experience. She grew up food insecure, her mother leaving an abusive marriage, and doing everything she could to feed her children. Erin knows deeply that food insecurity is not a moral failing it's a systemic issue.

We talked about the urgent need to integrate food access into healthcare. We talked about universal free school meals and the critical role of community led change. What I took away most profoundly was this: When we design solutions with compassion, we move from charity to justice. She said, We can solve this one. And that hopeful clarity has stayed with me.

Yes, the problems are big, but they're not impossible. Giving, in Erin's words, is not just about filling a pantry. It's about building a world where no mother has to choose between safety and feeding her children. That conversation showed me that giving is systemic. Giving is policy.

Giving is choosing compassion over convenience. In May, I had the honor of sitting down with Lisa Price, the founder of Carol's Daughter and co creator of the Love Delivered initiative. To say Lisa is inspiring would be an understatement. She is a giver in every sense, rooted in culture, family, tradition, and love. Lisa shared how her giving often comes not from confidence, but from vulnerability from the courage to speak what's hard to say, I felt that too.

She reminded us that there is an immense power in opening our hearts and our stories, especially as women of color navigating systems that were simply not built for us. She spoke about maternal health, about advocating for Black and brown mothers through doula care and love delivered, about listening deeply to the needs of her community, and responding with action. Lisa shared that giving is advocacy, giving is listening, giving is love in motion. And she also reminded me that we don't have to be perfect to be powerful. Sometimes the most generous thing we can do is to say, you are not alone.

And just last month, we closed our first half of the year with Georgi Enthoven, the founder of Work That's Worth It. Georgi brought us home to purpose. She asked us to consider what it means to do work that not only sustains us but uplifts us. Work that restores dignity, ignites passion, and aligns with our deepest values. With decades of experience across the globe, Georgie reflected on what it means to build a life and a livelihood that's in alignment.

She said, when you find the formula that works for you, your day job becomes part of your life adventure. That spoke to my soul. Because we spend ninety thousand hours, give or take, working in our lifetimes, what if those hours were infused with meaning? What if they became part of our giving? From Georgi, I learned a unique perspective on giving.

Giving is alignment. Giving is purpose. Giving is letting your life be the work, and the work be the gift. I sit with all these conversations, Michael, Demi, Aaron, Lisa, and Georgi, I'm struck by one thing. Giving is not a single act.

It's not a checkbox or a moment in time. It's a way of being. It's a rhythm, a quiet resolve, a mindset, a commitment to show up for each other, for our communities, and sometimes for ourselves. Over the past five months, I've learned that giving looks different for everyone. For Michael and the Alameda County Community Food Bank, giving is about meeting a need with dignity, removing shame, and censoring justice.

For Demi, it's about rewriting the story entirely so young women don't just survive but thrive in spaces they were told weren't built for them. For Erin, it's systems level. It's deeply personal and profoundly strategic. Giving for her is about challenging the policies that let hunger exist in the first place. And for Lisa, giving is rooted in love, in storytelling, in creating a legacy of care that doesn't require perfection, just presence.

And Georgi brought us inward, asking, What if our very life, our work, our choices was a form of giving? What if the act of thriving wasn't selfish, but sacred? Each guest offered a different lens, but they all led to the same truth. Giving is action born from awareness. It doesn't have to be big.

It just has to be real. Sometimes giving looks like writing a bill or passing legislation. Other times, it's walking into a room and making space for someone who's never been invited to speak. Sometimes it's raising a hand to say, I felt that too, when everyone else is quiet or handing someone a plate of food that says you are seen. Sometimes giving is being willing to learn, to unlearn, to shift how we've always done things in favor of how things ought to be done.

And sometimes giving is just being honest about our own stories. Like Erin, when she spoke about her mother, like Lisa, when she talked about carrying the weight of perfection. These moments, these shared truths have made me realize that the most powerful kind of giving often begins with vulnerability. Because when we tell the truth about who we are and where we've been, we open the doors for others to do the same. And in that space of honesty, of compassion, of shared humanity, change begins.

You know, in the world of skincare and business, we often talk about transformation. Products that heal, rituals that restore. But what I've come to believe, what I know to be true, is that the deepest transformations happen when we engage with the world around us. When we give our attention to what matters, when we give without expecting anything in return, when we give knowing we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. That's what The Giving Garden is all about.

It's not just a podcast. It's not just a loyalty program. It's a mindset. It's a movement, a reminder that each of us has something to offer, that every act of generosity, no matter how small, plants a seed. And when we nurture those seeds, they grow into something extraordinary.

I want to ask you, what are you planting this year? Maybe it's time. Maybe it's energy. Maybe it's your voice. Maybe it's space for someone else to rise.

You don't have to be extraordinary to make an extraordinary impact. You just have to be willing, willing to notice, willing to care, willing to give consistently, creatively, courageously. So as we look ahead to the rest of the year, I invite you to stay open, to keep asking, what does giving look like in my life? It might be mentoring a young person, supporting a local food bank, checking in on a neighbor, starting a conversation that matters. It might be building something from scratch or slowing down enough to listen.

It might even be taking care of yourself because we cannot give what we don't have. Whatever your giving looks like, I hope you trust that it matters. And here's what I promise. We'll continue to have these conversations. We'll keep gathering around the stories that inspire us, challenge us, and push us to grow.

Together, we'll keep learning how to give better, more boldly, and more beautifully. Because when you give, you grow. And when we grow together, we thrive. Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for listening, and thank you for giving.