How BALLE Began

Judy Wicks is a woman who loves to build local living economies, she formed the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia as an outgrowth of her work building a sustainable local food economy around her restaurant, Philadelphia’s White Dog Café. When Judy Wicks moved onto a leafy Philadelphia street in 1972, she discovered that her new neighborhood was to be torn down to make way for a mall. “How could it be that these charming brownstone row houses and neighborhood shops would be demolished to make way for chain stores and fast-food restaurants?” she exclaimed. This must have been her first BALLE moment!

After helping to save the block from the wrecking ball, Judy opened the White Dog Café in January 1983 as a take-out coffee and muffin shop on the first floor of her house. Over the years the business grew into additional row houses and the menu expanded, until by 1989 the White Dog had grown to a full-service restaurant seating more than 200 customers, with a menu inspired by fresh local produce from the family farms of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Continuing to live above the shop, Judy grew deep roots in her community, providing educational programs on progressive issues and developing a mission of service in four areas: serving customers, employees, community, and nature. In serving nature, the White Dog Café became the first business in Pennsylvania to purchase 100 percent of its electricity from wind power, developed a recycling and compost project, and installed a solar hot water system for washing all those dishes.

In 1998, after reading about the cruel treatment of factory-farmed hogs, Judy told her chef to take all the pork off the menu until she could find a humane source. A farmer who was supplying the restaurant with free-range chickens and eggs knew Amish farmers who kept pigs in a meadow, with enough space to move around and live a natural piggy life. But she didn’t stop there. Next she heard about the plight of the cow, a natural herbivore that had been taken off pasture and kept in barns and feedlots. Judy found local sources for grass-fed beef and dairy products.

Gradually Judy worked her way through her menu, scouting sources, visiting farms, making introductions, until the chicken, the eggs, the beef, and the dairy products all came from humane and sustainable local sources, along with the already local organic produce she had long purchased. What she couldn’t source locally – coffee, sugar, chocolate – she bought from fair-trade suppliers. She grew a nice niche for the White Dog, the only restaurant in Philadelphia with a menu based on local and fair trade, with only humanely raised meat and poultry.

And then came a major decision point: Hoard or share? Keep this as her market niche alone, or throw it open to every restaurateur in Philadelphia? She realized that if she really cared about the pigs, the environment polluted by the concentration of manure, family farmers driven out by corporate factory farms, and consumers eating unhealthy meat, then she would share her knowledge with her competitors. It wasn’t enough to be one sustainable business – she wanted to work cooperatively to build a sustainable system. Judy formed a non-profit, White Dog Community Enterprises, and began contributing 20 percent of her café’s profits toward its mission of building a local living economy in the Philadelphia region.

She hired the nonprofit’s first staff person, whose job it was to connect chefs with local farmers, building a regional network of farms, restaurants, and stores. At the same time, Judy made a loan to a farmer to buy a refrigerated truck so he could deliver pastured pork to other restaurants. Next, she asked what else could be sourced more locally, more sustainably: Clothing? Building materials? Energy? She began meeting with other like-minded business owners in the Philadelphia area and talking up her vision of a sustainable local economy until she had built another network, the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, founded in 2001. Today SBN Philly has more than 400 members representing the areas of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, green building, recycling, eco-friendly office and cleaning supplies, independent media, downtown retail, community capital, and the other building blocks that comprise a local living economy.

From one small restaurant, many ideas for change have come. Judy claims that her true occupation is using good food to lure innocent customers into social activism!

What is BALLE?

BALLE stands for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.
It is an international movement in which local, independently-owned businesses are working together to build sustainable and vibrant communities.

Why is BALLE the fastest growing business movement in North America?
Because the time for dynamic local economies is right now! We believe in the power of local independent businesses to transform communities, build local self-reliance, align commerce with the common good, and bring transparency, accountability, and a caring human face to the marketplace.