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The Giving Garden® Podcast Season 2 Episode 4 with Sara Stewart

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Full Transcript of Season 2 Episode 4

Martina Halloran: Coming up on this episode of the Giving Garden Podcast.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Unity Gardens magic is that we've transcended the usual charitable dance that divides those who give from those who receive. You grow it and people will come. You make it fun and they'll come back. These relationships and the nature and the food all come together in a great celebration of what it is that makes us all human.

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.

Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, powered by plants that nurture tone and balance.

Today, we welcome someone whose work embodies the heart of what it means to gather for good. In 2008, Sarah Stewart looked around her community and saw something that should never be a luxury, access to fresh, healthy food. Rather than waiting for someone else to solve it, she planted a garden.

That garden became a seed of care that has now grown into more than 40 Unity Gardens across Northern Indiana, all built on the belief that food should be abundant, shared, and accessible to everyone. Sarah is a nurse, a professor, and an advocate who understands that health is not only clinical, it is social, it is emotional, and it is economic. Through UNITY GARDENS, she has created a space where anyone can harvest freely, where neighbors learn together, where children discover how food grows, and where communities reconnect with dignity. Her work reminds us of a truth we hold deeply in The Giving Garden. When we nourish each other, when we remove barriers and meet people where they are, we create pathways to wellness that last far beyond a single meal.

It is an honor to have her with us today. Sara Stewart, welcome to The Giving Garden®.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Thank you so much.

Martina Halloran: This is near and dear to my heart. My mama was from Indiana, Hammond, Indiana, big Mexican community, spent many, many, many summers there, spent a lot of time. So when I discovered the work you were doing, I was really, really interested and really wanted to share the powerful work you're doing and how you're reshaping and redefining what it means to be community. Can you take us back a little bit to 2008 and this project, this moment in time? What was that moment, that experience that made you realize that your community where you were living needed fresh barrier free food.

And I think that's a critical statement, barrier free, because I don't think a lot of people understand there are so many barriers to access to fresh food sources in the country.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Absolutely.

Martina Halloran: And where were you at that stage in your life? And what was that trigger that said, I'm going to do something?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Right. The gift of unity gardens, as I like to call it, because it was serendipitous in nature. I am not someone particularly prone to being prophetic or future oriented or any of that. I tend to make decisions quickly, and I tend to just bounce through life reactively. So in my nursing, I was teaching at St.

Mary's College, the sister college for Notre Dame, and I was completing my master's degree at Bethel College, and my thesis was on the culture of socioeconomic class, things in wellness, middle class, and poverty that changed the way we take care of ourselves. And then helping offer that knowledge base to students so they could more effectively exact change with people in a culturally congruent way. So I take my St. Mary's students out to places where people in poverty would be gathering resources, whether it's places that serve meals, or whether it's places that give diapers or clothing or that sort of thing. And what I found was the very vulnerable populations that had scarcity and lack of access and barriers to all sorts of things, including food and medical care, were the same exact people that we were feeding high salt, high sugar, high fat foods to, while quote teaching them how to eat healthy.

I mean, how ironic is that? Where you're saying, oh, you have hypertension. You should watch what you eat. And then hand someone canned green beans or canned soup, things that have that hidden salt in them. And that irony coupled with sharing one simple idea with some of my people I worked with that were unhoused, I said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing a garden where anyone could just pick fresh, healthy food.

And that one little sentence on one person literally started sharing a story, weaving a tale about gardening with their grandma with these fond memories. And another person was saying, oh, man, a garden. I could just taste those greens now, looking forward to hope in the future. So I went home very excited about the idea of growing a free pick garden. Then I'm like, wait a minute, I teach this stuff.

When you're in the culture of poverty, especially multigenerational poverty, you're not typically reflecting on your past with fond memories. They're littered with abuse, addiction, neglect, and disappointment. And so you don't have the information to carry with you to make change in the future. You're also not looking forward to your future and planning, Oh, what do I want to be when I grow up? And all that.

No, you're just trying to keep all the balls in the air. Like, how am I gonna pay this bill? How am I gonna feed my kids? Where am I gonna sleep tonight? That crisis of the moment robs the future story.

And yet, when I mentioned the garden idea, that one little idea, one person literally reflected on their past with fond memories, and one person looked forward with hope to the future. That was the gift of Unity Gardens, a serendipitous moment that went from idea to just actually emailing four people. Hey. I'm gonna do this garden, and that list went to about 2,000 by the 2008.

Martina Halloran: Wow. That is powerful. A single idea, a single seed. Unity Gardens is not just about free food. You've said some really powerful and important things, especially from a cultural perspective.

I've had so many beautiful conversations over the last year with people who are working in the food justice space and really talking about the idea of stigma and the health and wellness connection, but yet the health and wellness disconnection, where people who are really suffering from food insecurity, they are judged in such a way because of their dietary limitations of where they have access. And that's not just financial access, that's geographic access, transportation access, and it often limits people in socio economic strained communities to be making poor food choices, not by intention, simply by survival, right? And when you talk about your organization, it's not just about free food, it's about community. It's about dignity. It's about access without conditions.

That is really important and really powerful. Why was it essential that in your model that it was pick free and open for everyone and no work required?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: This is where the magic of Unity Gardens lives. The soul of Unity Gardens has to do with the idea that we can come together in a food festival, not a food insecurity or a food pantry kind of way. Unity Gardens magic is that we've transcended the usual charitable dance that divides those who give from those who receive. In a very simple manner, that line serves to divide us. But we all eat.

And the hidden message, what it feels like if you're on the wrong side of that line is that I'm saying, Oh, if you only did the things I did, or were as smart as me, or rich as me, or industrious or tenacious or even lucky, you'd be over here with me. That line no matter what changes the dynamic between us and them. So at Unity Gardens, we've done something outrageous, and it doesn't go without having to make explicit why. We've created a destigmatized free food system. At a mere economic point, we are trying to spend millions of dollars as a nation to teach people how to eat healthy.

But lack of knowledge, as you pointed out, is not the only barrier. It is rude. It's not just not helpful. It's rude to teach someone how to eat healthy so that you can hand them a squash because it discounts the efforts and the other barriers. So to create healthy fresh food for what?

A dollar for a pack of seeds is really quite economical. You grow it and people will come. You make it fun and they'll come back. Kids start playing. People walk the gardens.

They're in nature. Green space mitigates anxiety and touching soil combats depression. So from a purely medical standpoint, we have wellness well covered, and that's not even counting ingesting fruits and vegetables. But then we look at social capital and what it means to have connections that are cross cultural ways of creating job opportunities and creating relationships that lead to finding people that would not be your traditional applicants. So these relationships and the nature and the food all come together in a great celebration of what it is that makes us all human.

Martina Halloran: That was so incredible. And I want to take it back to the first part of what you were talking about, that line of divide and how people stand either on one side or the other. Having grown up in a food insecure household, having been a child that received free lunch, and now we're going back thirty plus years when stigma was attached. All schools have free lunch now. And I never thought about it that way.

I never framed it as this line. But when you think about it in a societal way, there is a line of givers and receivers, receivers and givers and vice versa. And the fact that you've taken this idea and just in its pure simplicity and just blew it up and said, we are all one. And we are active participants in our livelihood. We are active participants.

And when I say livelihood, I mean health and wellness, right? That's your biggest part of your livelihood is how well you are, that you are creating a space for people to not only learn, but actively participate in changing the trajectory of their lives is really incredible and really powerful with dignity and without judgment. It's not transactional. It is I love this festival of food. And what that that brings me to is this idea of joy because food should be joyful.

When you come and you gather with people, it's often over food.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Right? Yeah. We have to nourish our bodies, not just with good, healthy food and nutrients, but also those emotions that are attached to it. We know cortisol levels and physiology change with stress. So why would we take people who are resource scarce and almost punish them for accessing the healthy food?

Martina Halloran: Yeah. It's a punishment through shame and stigma. And it's a societal cultural thing, the haves and the have nots. And I think more and more people are willing to have the conversation today that it's not just a lack of access to fresh food. There are so many other social cultural variables that are in this formula of people being food insecure on a regular basis.

Absolutely. I love your approach that it is this festival of food that people can really engage with you and your team and your community and become part of your community and be active members and active participants in their lives. Because to your point, food pantries are very transactional. What you're doing is so community oriented of participation. That's exciting, and that is a beautiful model for other people to follow.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Yeah. Creating edible parks is such, like you said, a simple concept, but we're all scared of not having enough. You know, in our culture, it's based on scarcity. Power and money tend to be the winning themes. And so what happens when we know we have this abundance of food?

We just have a distribution problem. So what happens when we take food off the table, so to speak, in terms of scarcity and we act as if there's abundance? Everything changes, which is delightful if we have the courage to try.

Martina Halloran: If we have the courage to try and if we have the courage to talk about it. I think silence on this front is so dangerous because in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we do have enough food. We can afford on a daily basis to provide healthy, reliable food sources for every single person in The United States. Absolutely. That's a fact.

That's not that's data driven. That's a fact. That's not emotion. And I think that when people are willing to talk about it and matching that language with action, the results can be really powerful for communities and for individuals. So as a nurse and a professor of community health, you understand how food access impacts long term health.

This is one of the things that more and more people are really starting to understand that food is medicine. And what has the garden taught you about health outcomes that textbooks never really could?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: It's interesting because there is a certain kind of joy that we can attach to, a mindful way of living that is being lost. And with our permission, it's being lost. We give ourselves like, we consider self-care getting a sugary drink or, you know, with our kids, a treat of a candy bar, etcetera. And the rewards, especially in the culture of poverty, tend to be food based and right all here and now. In middle class and wealth, you can do things like vacations and other gifts, but really, we're celebrating sugar, those things as treats, which is counterproductive to the kind of joy of a well prepared or a well worked for gift of healthy nutrients.

We know that healthy nutrients help us think in school. So we have, as a culture, this opposing things where we're feeding kids sugar as rewards, which actually then perpetuates their inability to learn, concentrate, be mindful, less anxious, all of those things. So when someone personally, what happened to me is working at a nonprofit instead of at the university anymore, or instead of another job as a nurse, I have learned to do much more with less. So I eat from the garden as well. When you eat from things you grow, there's a certain connection.

And then handing it to someone or sharing food with someone, both in the raw form or the prepared form, becomes a more personal gift. Everything we do here is a bubble of relationships. And I think that's the magic because in both the culture of wealth, middle class, and poverty, relationships are key. In wealth, their connections, in middle class, are to move yourself forward through education, etcetera. But in poverty, it's about relationships because that's all you can count on.

Martina Halloran: Right.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: And so if you want to help someone move to a place of greater health and wellness, at a very simple point, you need to build the relationship. It's people first here. So when we're in the garden and we have garden guides, we literally have two full time people that are assigned to greet people, not to say, Hi, what are you here for? But to wait.

Martina Halloran: I love that.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: And to hand a bag to them and do harvesting help and tasting tours. What happens when we go through a garden and taste kale together or mustard greens or cherry tomato? We start comparing notes or sharing recipes, and before you know it, it was so much fun people come back or feeding the goats, which, of course, is always a good

Martina Halloran: I love I love that. The people first idea is so near and dear to Dr. Hauschka. We believe in people before profit. Obviously, we have to keep the lights on and we have to pay the bills, but we really believe that the heart of what we're able to do and the heart of what we're able to share is in connection, is in community, is with the people who are powering this organization every day. And we understand that there's tremendous value in people and in the world today where profit and wealth is the benchmark of success.

We look at it from a very different perspective. That idea of a healthy organization is a great organization and healthy participants and employees is a critical part of that. And I love that that's your approach in redefining what success looks like.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Yeah, we can do better and we can walk that walk ourselves and show people the joy within it.

Martina Halloran: Absolutely. So it sounds like you're doing a lot of education in your organization. Can you share a little bit about what some of that looks like and what some of the programs that you offer that are really educationally oriented for your community?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: We grow everything naturally, organically, and I mean literally and figuratively. At first, we just did the garden, and then we realized people no longer know how to grow food or where it comes from. Kids do not know that you can pick like a cherry tomato off a plant and pop it in your mouth, tear a lettuce leaf off and eat that and the rest will still grow. There's so many things. So when we discovered that people have lost that knowledge, that generational knowledge of how to grow food for ourselves, we realized that's critical both for adults and children.

So we started those back in 2010 And we continue to do like a garden 101 or basic gardening series, all free to the community. We do them on Zoom or in person. And those are everything from soil health and garden planning and companion planting and just everything you need to know to get yourself successfully through. But then we also do an orchard series because now we are doing fruit trees and

Martina Halloran: Oh, that's awesome.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: We have done, I think, 23 urban orchards in the last three years. So pretty exciting there in addition to our 45 gardens that we're helping manage. So those things are our base classes. But then what we've discovered over the last two years, now that we have a real building and the infrastructure to host people year round, is that there are other reasons people might come to us, and then when they're here, they'll capture that joy of the garden. So we do Little Sprouts programming for the area youth around here, whether that's art in the garden or some of the activities they do, reading, story writing, planting, composting, playing with worms, there's a zillion things.

But at a minimum, we're feeding kids who are very food insecure. At a maximum, we're giving them adult mentorship and relationships that can really get them through when things get rough at home. So we have that that's going on every single day here, seven days a week. The kids can get something to eat. Then we also are creating those same or similar pathways of success for our Indiana Department of Corrections men at South Bend Reentry here who are men who are in their last three years of incarceration.

So we have volunteer opportunities, internships, paid internships, and employment opportunities so that men can create the community connections, which I think is maybe what we're best at, so that they can find their passion in similar joyful work. It really changes your mind frame when you have taken from society and then can give back and know what that feels like. So every slice of that with our weekly volunteer lunches with them where some of these guys haven't sat down and had a family style lunch in thirty years. So it's very powerful. We do haircuts and hotcakes.

Sounds real simple. Area barbers will do cutting edge, nice confidence building haircuts for some of the kids and families that could not afford it. Not that that's the only people that can come, anyone can. And then we cook pancakes and hot dogs, and it's for the families. So, like, everyone comes and they get these cool haircuts and they enjoy the garden.

And then all of a sudden, before they know it, they might as well pick some vegetables. The art in the garden has attracted new people who may not even care about vegetables, and then yoga. We've been doing yoga outside in the garden for almost all the summer months weekly, And that has drawn such a great community of people dedicated to not only wellness, but mindfulness.

Martina Halloran: So what aren't you doing? There's so many layers to what you are doing. This is incredible, Sarah. Your work. And I love the fact that you have no box.

You know, it's not about thinking outside of the box. You're you keep seeing opportunities to connect with people, to help people access what you have to offer. And I think that's really incredible. A lot of times organizations have a format because nonprofit work is not easy. The fact that you keep adding layer after layer after layer to say, how can I reach more people?

How can we engage more people? Is really powerful.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Well, there's definitely more, but the crux of it has to do with strategic planning. And so every time you have to write a strategic plan, that's about the most boring thing you can ever hear from nonprofit. And the last time I wrote for something of that nature, what I wrote in is our feedback loop listening system. So rather than come up with where we're gonna be in ten years, I need to keep my ears to the ground, both with the customers who use Unity Gardens, with my internal staff, with the VIPs in the community, of not just what we're doing well or where they see our peace in our community, but also so we can respond to unmet needs. Our north star, if you will, is connecting people to healthy food, nature, and one another.

It has to fall in one of those three jurisdictions. And other than that, we're okay. This year, 2025, we have more than doubled our impact based on the people we age and the food that we've connected people to. And we did the doubling by September. And then of course, Thanksgiving is a big time for people to get food.

So some of our food rescue or food pantry partners had too many turkey dinners and didn't know what to do. And over half of those 2,600 meals, we were able to not only distribute, but to distribute with the sign up system in three days, just spontaneously. The reach of 25,000 people with over 500,000 pounds of food annually was something we never thought we could do.

Martina Halloran: And the fact that you were hitting these incredible benchmarks in September, one of the things that I often share with people because, you know, all these places do these big pushes, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I say to people, people are hungry three hundred and sixty five days a year, just on Thanksgiving, not just on Christmas. And you were hitting and you were reaching all of these people well in advance of Thanksgiving, which is usually an inflection point for many nonprofit organizations. And that is a testament to the work you're doing, the work your community is doing, the work your team is doing on the ground. And that is really incredible.

Is there a moment or conversation that ever comes back to you that really captures the heart of this work and reminds you of why you continue, why you write the strategic plans, why you look for the what's next?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: There's a couple, and many of them have happened this year. 2023 was the year of infrastructure. Before that, we had the garden and a little shaded shelter carport, and we worked out of a house across the street, but not a public facing house, and that was it. So we have now a welcome center with offices, classroom space, a kid's learning area, and toys, and a commercial kitchen where we can interact with the community around. So when I pull up to this garden, which is seven acres, and then there's the welcome center, I sometimes just sit there and reflect and go, like, how could you be in the business of free food and all of this?

It's so beautiful here. And then I see all these cars, and I'm like, oh my gosh. For the first twelve years or so, it was just my husband and I. And now we have a team of nine full time people, and we hire about 15 full time interns every summer. And it's just unbelievable.

All these cars are my staff. It's not like the weight of the world on me. But think about how where I'm sitting in a place where I can clearly see that I have a purpose and I'm living it. That kind of culminated this year in not only the impact being so sizable in our growth, but also receiving a few awards that were very community facing. It's kind of like attending your own funeral where people sing your accolades.

I really feel very self-actualized in my ability to have done the work it takes to maybe teach people how to be more kind and share better.

Martina Halloran: So you're managing 40 plus gardens. Not simple. Again, nonprofit work is not easy. Do you have some strategic partnerships or your volunteer network? What does that look like that makes all of this happen and all of this move every single day?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: There's so many pieces to that, and there's a few I wanna share. We grow everything naturally. I know I keep saying that and by attraction rather than promotion. That doesn't mean that we don't promote our stuff on social media, etcetera. What that means is that we let those serendipitous people come and share in ways that make sense for them.

And so for volunteer engagement, one person asked us this as we were applying for an award that we did receive. And they said, well, how do you engage over 3,000 volunteers a year? Like, how do you recruit them? And I remember Katie and I looking at them, and the answers were not. We make it fun.

So if someone comes to Unity Gardens to volunteer, we wanna make sure they come back. The second way, magic, let's just say, of that kind of engagement and recruitment is it's unprecedented. People love this simple idea. It's scary. I mean, how many of us are willing to open up our belongings to everyone else and share?

It's scary to think about not having enough or to see someone who doesn't. But creating that dance where we can directly see the gratitude, the ease, it's so important. In order to do this, we have to take advantage of sharing our story broadly. So no matter who, whether it's a customer that comes in, a volunteer group, we always take time to give, let's say, at least ten to thirty minute intro of who UNITY GARDENS is. Because it's unprecedented, because it's so uniquely dignified, we must explain it.

So that's one way that we keep people coming back and involved in that. The way we support it is not only through the private donations that may come because people are inspired. You know, I always say we have a million. We don't have a million, but, you know, we have quite a few $100 donors per year. We don't have those bigger ones as much, but if everyone just does a little, then we can create this magic.

We have also a booth at the South Bend Farmers Market and here at the Welcome Center where we sell value added product. So we have a small farm area, it's only about 200 by 100 square feet, where we grow unique products that we can sell at market. So like peppers, let's say. We sell seeds for peppers and for other things, and then we sell plants. We sell the peppers you can pick off, and then we dry those peppers and sell the hot pepper chili powder stuff.

And not just like jalapenos. I'm talking like death spiral and ghosts and apocalypse scorpion and all those fun things. And then we take that dried pepper powder and put it in our honeys because we have beehives, and you have not lived till you try like habanero honey or ahi tirapita honey on your like pizza. It's or wings or sausage.

Martina Halloran: Okay. Talk about magic. You used that word over and over and I love it. And now you're talking about the sweet spot of magic, which is really taking what you're doing and putting it into action. I love that you see this as magic.

And I love that you see the simplicity of what helping somebody can do from a really non transactional way. The idea that you're bringing joy for everyone, it doesn't matter whether they're a receiver, or if they're a volunteer, that you've completely not just blurred the lines, you've taken away the lines. That people are coming together for no matter what their intention is for the day or the visit or the time they're spending with you to really come and have some joy. I recently heard this idea and had a beautiful conversation a couple months back, the idea joy as a form of resistance. To be able to have joy because you've created this space where they can put for a moment for a minute for a second, for an hour or for a day, the challenges aside and be in a place of joy and be in a place of receiving that is destigmatized and non-chaotic and a place of comfort and community is really powerful.

And it is yet is so simple. And that if more and more people took this approach, imagine what the multiplier effect could be. I mean, because you're doing it. You and your team and your organization and your community and your volunteers, you are all doing it.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: For seventeen years, every day, I'm grateful for what has been what I would consider an impossible journey. I have no idea, but it reminds me of the Buddhist monks and if they were valued, they would be supported. And so if the community values us, we'll be supported. And if other communities want to replicate, we're here to help. We do wanna grow both in-depth and in breadth.

We want to make sure that here in our hub, we are in a place to support those other Unity Gardens that are volunteer led, etcetera, and share best practices, and make sure that's pretty self-sustaining. Then we also wanna share with other communities so that they don't have to create a whole new food access initiative. We've done that. With our partners, food rescue partners and pantry partners, etcetera, people that distribute food, whether it's a grocery store, a farmer, etcetera. Because we've created the system where people who seek food trust us, then people who collect food can give to us, and we're together making this dance that does bring food where it needs to be for those people that need it.

Martina Halloran: The main site includes a fenced urban farm. Yes. And this is brilliant. People don't often think of urban and farm in the same sentence cause it's not easy to do. And the farm, if I understand this correctly, supports the program financially.

Is that a big part of your financial model is the farm?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: It's about one fourth. We talk about donations, grants, fundraising events, and sales. And the farm is part of that because its value added products then. So we have beeswax hand balms and soaps and infused honeys, but we also have bath salts with different ingredients, calendula, lavender, some of the herbs we do. We're hoping to expand into teas soon.

So yes, it's not just like we're giving traditional farm foods. We do baby greens and heirloom tomatoes and the hot peppers I referred to because they're unique. And since we're not herding the land, we're not tilling and doing mono cropping, it's important to make sure when you're growing naturally that you're making something that is unique so that you cannot waste food.

Martina Halloran: What does growth look like for The UNITY GARDENS? I know you don't you don't wanna build a big strategic plan, but if you thought about it, it's been such an incredible journey for you and your organization. What does expansion look like? Or what are deeper roots look like for you?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Absolutely. We have a couple things here locally. We have some land across the street that we want to create a permaculture and educational space in. One thing we have found as a limiting factor here as we've grown so much is that when we have the kids programs going on or classes and people are coming to visit for food and picking food out in the garden, that many times any experiments that people wanna do horticulturally in class or hands on learning activities become blended with the open garden and no one's gonna see whose tomato ripens best or whatnot. So we're wanting to create at this, and it's right across the street, a building that would be classroom, some food storage, even if it's just Rutseller type storage, so that when we're getting 10,000 pounds of peaches or watermelons or whatever, the green beans were the only challenge, is how do you keep those in 90 degree weathers?

So we know we have the potential of needing that well. And then a venue. Who wouldn't want to have a farm to fork venue where they could literally have a wedding or a class or a meeting or etcetera. It's the only of its kind that's really right there like that. So that creates some reason for people to come and some revenue that then again supports the educational programs.

That's what growth looks like here. The idea as the founder seventeen years ago that I am older and that this has been wonderful and such a life's journey is great. But if it dies with me, then it was great, but whatever. So we are fully into, two years into, a succession plan. So I am creating the leaders for the next generation.

They've been with us now quite some time, each in their own areas, and they have some fluidity within that. And as they dig in more here and have a strong base, they'll be inventing those next stages. But we also wanna look at breadth. So our director of operations, Katie, has created a PowerPoint to kinda share with people our best practices and have those conversations with new communities. And we, again, by attraction, will help share those things so people can start creating those relationships.

I may even be in a position to be able to travel out to communities and be able to answer questions and share more broadly.

Martina Halloran: Wow. That would be amazing. Because that was where it was going next. If someone wanted to start something similar in their city and I say city because the urban communities are the ones that are tend to be left out of this type of formula. And this is an incredible formula and system that you've created in an urban environment.

So what would be the first step you would recommend?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: And that has happened. We've had a few communities, especially with the Notre Dame connection, where people from out of town will come in, do service, and be inspired. So there are some spatterings of small unity gardens throughout the country and even internationally. So I think the first thing is to have that conversation. Typically people love the idea, oh, I'd love to do one of these in my area.

But we're so geared towards, I will do one, that my church or my school or my community club or my neighborhood will do that. And immediately you've segregated yourself from exactly what unity is all about. So having the conversation with us about what to expect from this, how to engage communities in a way that are multifaceted, I think is a super first step. When you do a school, you have to teach schools to think outside their own little community, and they're gone for the summer. And then companies, churches, etcetera.

If you get two churches, a school, and a business, and a neighborhood association together, you've got some real depth and tenacity then. And so those are what some of the first steps is the community building. I can teach someone or guide someone how to garden, but it's not so easy to teach people how to engage. And that's why you wanna bring a lot of people to the table, but not too many.

Martina Halloran: Understood. So when people talk about Unity Gardens 10 from now, what do you hope they would say?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: I hope it's not even if they talk about, but when people engage in Unity Gardens in ten years from now, I hope that there's that same genre of kindness and joy that permeates our interactions now. You can feel it here. When people come into this space, it's just something different. And people tell me time and time again, I love being here. It feels good.

We have no trouble with hiring even though we don't pay well, and it's chaotic work at best. It's just people want to be here and want to dedicate their lives to something important. So I think that's that stuff that matters is the joy of being in nature with others, with food. Even if you're not talking to others, just being side by side with other people without fear in these welcoming environments is becoming a cultural anomaly. And I am all for progress in one way or another, what that may mean, but not to the extinction of our interaction with nature and our real world.

And I think these spaces will become more valuable for not just food insecurity issues, but for community building issues.

Martina Halloran: When I think about our conversation, you've said so many powerful things, but what I come back to is dignity, joy, community. And those ideas are so simple, yet we as a society keep missing the mark. And I think you've created, for lack of a better word, this incredible blueprint for other communities to really embrace such an incredible opportunity to not just support food insecurity, but to really have people come to nature. Nature is very grounding. I mean, obviously, at Dr. Hauschka, we are so connected to nature. But the idea that you are doing a program that is so filled with joy and comes from the place of dignity to serve the whole community, not just people standing on one side or the other, and that you've been able to blur the lines is truly remarkable. And I'm in awe. And Sarah, I thank you for the work. And I hope our listeners will really take heart into what you've said.

And I would love for you to share a little bit about how if somebody would like to support your work at Unity Gardens, how can the people listening today connect or reach out in the best way to support your organization?

Sara Stewart RN MSN: Absolutely. So there's a number of different ways. Certainly, calls, emails, texts all work well to begin a conversation. And as ironic as it is, by email, and I can give our website too, which has all this information, but my email is just Sara, s a r a, @theunitygardens dot org, and that's gardens, plural. The website is the same, theunitygardens.org.

And I think that's an important start to be looking at what Uni Gardens is all about and what we do. They say a picture's worth a thousand words, and believe me, we have some great pictures on there.

Martina Halloran: I bet you do.

Sara Stewart RN MSN: The amount of food and the amount of people has just been amazing. But I am also open to those phone calls. Anyone on my staff can at least begin some conversation in terms of what we're about, answer questions or get a message to me. And then I do a lot of work by text, and I don't mind sharing that. For the first fifteen years, I was the only phone number here.

So that number is (574) 315-4361. And that text is my personal text. So when I'm asleep, no worries. It's off. No one has to worry about that.

Martina Halloran: Well, is a big part of overall health. We wanna make sure you get it so you can continue this incredible work. Thank you for listening to our conversation today. Hearing Sarah share the story of UNITY GARDENS reminds us that access to nourishment is not a privilege. It's a fundamental human right.

What began as one garden grew into a network of more than 40 spaces where anyone can harvest freely without judgment or conditions. That is radical in its simplicity. It is a model built not on transactions, but on trust, care, and community. If today's conversation inspired you, I encourage you to carry a small piece of Sarah's vision into your everyday life. Maybe it's planting something in your own yard, or on your windowsill, or signing up to volunteer in your neighborhood.

Maybe it is noticing someone who could use encouragement and offering it. Unity often begins with a single act of generosity. You can learn more about Unity Gardens, how to visit, support, or start a garden of your own at their website, theunitygardens.org. Their work is a reminder that when we share the food we grow and the knowledge we cultivate, we nourish far more than bodies. We nourish dignity, connection, and hope.

Thank you for listening to The Giving Garden® Podcast. I hope you're leaving inspired because even the smallest act can spark positive change. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. The Giving Garden® Podcast is produced by Edwin Batista and edited by Steven West. A special thanks to Helen Polisi for her guidance and generosity.

The Giving Garden® Podcast is brought to you by Dr. Hauschka Skin Care USA pioneers in natural skincare for over fifty years in home to The Giving Garden® loyalty program. Visit drhauschka.com to learn more.