Buying local for the holidays and everyday
This Week I am talking to Rich Fegley, founder and co-owner of family owned and operated Fegley's Brew Works and Diane Teti, who runs the Allentown Art Works and organizes the Lehigh Valley Green Drinks.
Welcome Rich and Diane, I'm hoping in these last shopping days of the holiday season you can help remind our listeners why shopping local is important not just at this time of year but year round. Rich, why don't we start with you?
First and foremost, buying local supports the local economy - a 2009 study showed that locally owned businesses return approximately 64% of their revenue to the local economy versus only 34% from national chains who are sending their profits back to a corporate office in another state to be divvied up amongst stockholders. Local business owners are more likely to reinvest in the community, including contributing more than double to area non-profits as well.
We also need to support these local businesses because they foster tourism which obviously brings more money into our local economy. The Bethlehem Brew Works opened in 1998. Since that time, I've seen both north and south sides of Bethlehem, become home to many unique local businesses, not big chain stores. These areas have distinctive character because of these local businesses and are now thriving tourist destination spots. Richard Moe, President of the National Historic Preservation Trust has said, "When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace."
Local businesses tend to offer better services and goods as they are more in touch with the community and its wants and needs because they aren't cookie cutter box stores stocking their store based on a national sales plan. We have a Pennsylvania Dutch section on our menu that you won't find at the chains. Not only do our regulars love items like Pierogie casserole, tourists love to sample the local fare too.
We support our local growers market farmer by buying from the participating local farmer. We don't use a national food service provider, we work with local family owned businesses where we can influence the sourcing of the food we provide our customers working with more local farms and sourcing items such as our grass fed beef.
Owners, such as my family, tend be more vested in the community. We open our doors and partner with community groups on events. Groups like Green Drinks, who host an environmental networking event on the 2nd Wednesdays, also influence us and help us create partnerships with local businesses with local sustainability companies for LED lighting, solar and more. We were also able to connect with the City of Allentown and the Rodale Institute to send our food waste to compost on their farm. All local!

Diane, since you run Green Drinks, why don't you explain the environmental benefits of shopping local and maybe tell us how Art Works is supporting local arts?
It is estimated that the average American meal travels about 1500 miles to get from farm to plate. A study done in Iowa in 2010 showed that a 10% shift in purchasing power toward local use from one's state's farms saves 310,000 gallons of fuel annually and would reduce CO2 emissions by 7.3 million pounds. Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution. Using the Brew Works as an example, they are running two locations in historically preserved buildings - they didn't move to a shopping center that took over farmland and build from scratch.
Thank you for bringing up Art Works! When I first moved to the Lehigh Valley almost 4 years ago, I joined a local artist group to see how I could merge my love of the arts with my marketing and event planning expertise to help the artists. I became aware of the need for venues for local artists to display their work, especially in Allentown. At the same time, as I began to appreciate more and more the importance of buying local and supporting city centers while fighting urban sprawl, I began to see the arts as a vehicle to attract people to the downtown areas. You don't go to the mall or a shopping center and find original local art. I laugh when I think that my idea of art when decorating used to be going to a chain store and buying something most likely made in China!
Art Works is a permanent gallery inside the Fegley's Burrito Works, which is right next door to the Allentown Brew Works at 818 W. Hamilton Street. It's another example of how the Fegley family has partnered with a local group, this time local artists - to create a community space. It's evolving - right now we're working on making it a green reading room - with donated materials on green topics, besides hosting monthly exhibits. Each month's show is being curated by a different artist and featuring several local artists at one time. This Tuesday we're sponsoring an open mike, some artists approached us about and every Wednesday, Artists at Heart, an artists collective, hosts an open pottery workshop with a wheel. The Lehigh Valley has a rapidly growing local arts scene which will hopefully foster tourism and bringing more money into the local economy as well. Both the Lehigh Valley Green Drinks and the Allentown Art Works can be found on Facebook.
I'd like to thank you both for joining me on today's show and I'd like to wish everyone a happy and green holiday.