Judy Balunda insists her passion isn’t baking.
Sure, her cookbook collection takes up an entire room in her house. She’s seen the taste of her pies move adults to tears. And the shop she opened 10 years ago was named the fifth-best pie shop in the country in 2024.
But the freshly baked goods are just the crust of Balunda’s work at JudyPie.
The filling? Helping people in need.
The quaint shop in downtown Grapevine opened on a whim as “something to do,” said Balunda, a 73-year-old whose bright purple hair glows almost neon under the shop’s warm lights.
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As a cancer survivor and decadeslong advocate of mental health, Balunda turned her business into an avenue for public service. She encourages each customer to donate to My Health My Resources of Tarrant County, or MHMR, a nonprofit providing mental health and substance abuse treatment, intellectual and developmental disability services, and early childhood intervention.
JudyPie visitors are greeted with notecards and pens on each table, an invitation to write an encouraging message to someone struggling through a mental health crisis. Balunda distributes the notes to homeless people at MHMR’s Fort Worth community center, along with essential items such as body wipes and hygiene products.
Balunda’s generosity and spreading of mental health awareness earned her recognition in 52 Faces of Community, Fort Worth Report’s weekly series highlighting unsung heroes.
“Judy’s visits, complete with pies and handwritten notes of encouragement, help foster joy and reduce isolation among participants.”
Cathrine Carlton, nominator
MHMR chief of staff Catherine Carlton nominated Balunda, praising the baker’s mental health advocacy and resilience as a cancer survivor.
Balunda’s passion for mental health stems from her own decadeslong battle with depression, she said.
Welcome to 52 Faces
52 Faces of Community is a Fort Worth Report weekly series spotlighting local unsung heroes. It is sponsored by Central Market, H-E-B and JPS Health Network.
At the end of the year, these rarely recognized heroes will gather for a luncheon where the Report will announce one honoree to represent Tarrant County at the Jefferson Awards in Washington, D.C.
Over her life, she’s experienced the stigmas and misunderstandings people carry toward mental illness — things she now fights against by spreading awareness and encouraging empathy.
She feels deeply for people she sees going through mental health crises without access to therapy or medication, she said.
Balunda opened JudyPie after nearly 30 years as a special education teacher.
Running the business at the start was constant work, she said, but the shop soon picked up popularity, and her team of bakers steadily grew.
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The business model is simple: serve dozens of fresh fruit and cream pies based on recipes she finds in old cookbooks, along with meat pot pies, cakes, gluten-free, keto, vegan and dog-friendly treats.
Balunda remembers being a child and looking forward to her mom’s weekly Sunday pies, which would go on to serve as foundational recipes for her shop. JudyPie’s menu started small, but she expanded it every time a customer asked for a new flavor, digging up a recipe from the collection of cookbooks she reads for fun.
Judy Balunda poses with a woman receiving services from My Health My Resources of Tarrant County on May 27, 2025. (Courtesy photo | Judy Balunda)
“Strawberry rhubarb is one of those — people kept asking for it, and I’d never heard of it,” Balunda said. “I’ve seen grown men cry when they try it because it reminds them of what their grandma would make.”
Beyond pies, Balunda dreams of opening a community center closer to home in Grapevine, if she can raise the funding for it. She said the city lacks support or awareness for mental health compared to others around it, which is why she spends so much time volunteering in Fort Worth.
“People here have mental health struggles, too,” she said. “I can tell by what they write on the notes.”
A new community center would connect people so that they realize they’re not alone in their struggles, Balunda said — a message she tries to emphasize every day through handwritten notes, gift bags and fresh-baked, nostalgia-evoking pies.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
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