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History of the White Dog Community Enterprises

White Dog Community Enterprises (WDCE), officially chartered as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization in October 2002 under the name White Dog Cafe Foundation, started with two original programs — Fair Food and the Sustainable Business Network. Over the last 20 years, the White Dog Café has become a model enterprise, known nationally for its community involvement, environmental stewardship and responsible business practices. Food is purchased with a commitment to buying humanely raised animal products and sustainably grown produce from local family farmers. One hundred percent of electricity is purchased from wind power generated in Pennsylvania. And the Café currently employs over 100 people in living wage jobs. The White Dog exemplifies what we refer to as the "Triple Bottom Line" of people, planet and profit in business.

Realizing that creating one model enterprise is not enough, White Dog Community Enterprises was founded to take what has been learned and modeled at the Café to a higher level of social impact. The Café contributes 20% of its profits to WDCE and other non-profit organizations that share our values. Café customers make significant financial contributions, and earned income and foundation grants complete our financial support. Unlike many non-profits, we use the marketplace as a vehicle for social change. Business can be a powerful force in confronting many of the problems we face — wealth disparity, the breakdown of both rural and urban communities, environmental degradation, and the scarcity of meaningful employment. The programs of White Dog Community Enterprises support locally owned farms and businesses that, like the White Dog Cafe, serve the needs of customers, employees, our community and the Earth.

Our Programs

Fair Food - Fair Food addresses the role of food in a local, living economy by supporting a humane, sustainable agriculture system for our region. We aim to build wholesale markets for local farmers, improve distribution channels for locally grown food, increase consumer access to local food grown with care for people, animals and the earth, educate people about the value of locally and sustainably raised food and increase the supply of humanely and naturally raised animal products in the Philadelphia marketplace.

Accomplishments

Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN) Effective October 1, 2006, SBN spun off from the White Dog Café Foundation to incorporate as a separate nonprofit organization. Since it became a formal project in 2002, SBN operated as a program of White Dog Café Foundation (WDCF). From the beginning, the intention was to spin SBN off as a separate organization once it was ready to stand on its own. Four years were spent building programs, developing a membership base of over 400 local businesses and building organizational capacity for both SBN and WDCF. The SBN spin-off was enthusiastically approved by the SBN Steering Committee on June 13th and by the WDCF Board on June 26th.

SBN is a founding member of the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) - www.livingeconomies.org. A living economy supports both community and natural life, while sustaining long-term economic viability. Visit www.sbnphiladelphia.org for more information.

Our Staff

Deb Bentzel, Farm to Institution Program Manager - As the Farm to Institution Project Manager, Deb will continue the ongoing work of facilitating relationships between local institutional food buyers and local food growers and distributors, in order to further increase local food purchasing. Deb is also working to identify new avenues and resources to further expand local buying in schools, universities, and other centers providing Philadelphia’s young and old with regular food service. With a Master of Public Health degree in environmental health from Boston University School of Public Health, Deb has long been passionate about the local food movement, sustainable agriculture, fair trade, and urban food security. She most recently held a Program Manager position at Harvard Initiative for Global Health, where she managed global health metrics projects in conjunction with several international organizations and institutions. A South Jersey native, Deb is delighted to be back in Philadelphia, working directly with her surrounding communities and fellow citizens. A bread lover and dedicated baker, Deb is also currently attending culinary school in pursuit of a baking and pastry diploma.

Sarah Cain, Volunteer Coordinator and Farmstand Manager- Sarah has over 20 years of experience in restaurants as a waiter, manager and sommelier. Sarah also taught wine classes both freelance and as adjunct faculty at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. She has over 10 years of experience in organic gardening and small-scale farming, including working for Branch Creek Farm and running her own business, Fractured Farms. While farming, she also began brokering for other local farmers who were not delivering into Philadelphia. That fortunately led to delivering to the Fair Food Farmstand where she soon began volunteering behind the scenes, including working on three Local Grower/Local Buyer gatherings. Sarah joined us in June of 2007 as Supervisor, and brings her knowledge and enthusiasm for farming, local food, and cooking with her.

Emily Gunther, Product Manager / Farm to Market Liason- Emily works with the Farm to Institution Project, the Fair Food Farmstand, and assists with farmer and restaurant consulting. She is also working on a project to address seasonality barriers in farm to college programs. Emily comes to Fair Food after serving as at AmeriCorps*VISTA at Just Food in New York City. There, she worked as their first Farmer Outreach Associate and helped connect farmers to CSA's, community-run farmers markets, and soup kitchens and food pantries across NYC. Previously, Emily lived and worked on a small farm in Northern Spain where she learned permaculture growing methods and practiced cooking for 20 people. She has a BA in Spanish and Latin American Politics from Hamilton College.

Seth Kalkstein, General Manager

Ann Karlen, Executive Director - Ann Karlen is the founding Director of Fair Food, launched in 1999 as the first program of the White Dog Café Foundation. To further Fair Food's mission of making connections between Philadelphia chefs and farmers in Southeast Pennsylvania, Ms. Karlen consults with farmers, chefs and other wholesale buyers to help build business relationships and bring more local food into the Philadelphia marketplace. In addition, she runs the Fair Food Farmstand, a retail farmstand open year-round, Wednesday through Friday in the Reading Terminal Market. Selling all local produce, meat, cheese, dairy, and value-added products, the Farmstand provides consumer access to sustainable and humanely-raised farm products and education about sustainable local food systems to thousands of people each year.

Annie Rojas, Grants Manager
Annie Rojas's lifelong love affair with food has been driven by the role food plays in strengthening families, creating cultural ties, and building community (and the fact that it is all so tasty too!).. She began her career as a Public Health Nutritionist for the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program in San Francisco. During this time she was the co-founder and coordinator of the San Francisco Breastfeeding Promotion Coalition and served on the State of California WIC Branch Subcommittee for Model Breastfeeding Polices. After moving to NewnJersey, Annie directed the Cape May County Healthy Community Coalition, coordinating countywide, community driven substance abuse prevention initiatives and served on the national Advisory Committee for CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America). Most recently she worked as an independent consultant helping non-profit organizations with grant writing, strategic planning, and community organizing. Annie has a Bachelor's degree from Cornell University in Nutritional Sciences and a Masters in Public Health Nutrition from the University of California, Berkley, School of Public Health. She is a registered dietitian and a certified prevention specialist. Annie leads Community Enterprises' work as co-convener of the Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance, a community-driven planning project to address childhood obesity and community wellness.

Our Funders

A special thanks to all of the individuals, foundations and businesses that support the White Dog Café Foundation. Major Funders include the White Dog Café, The Samuel S. Fels Fund, Farm Aid, The Claneil Foundation, the Douty Foundation, the Allen Hilles Fund, the US Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency, Fair Food members, and the generous support of White Dog Café customers and other individual donors.