Stall-holder Tips from Ace Fair Trade Campaigner Karena Jarvie

We are very lucky to have Karena Jarvie on our True Origin Foods Board, and we are also very grateful to her for her excellent efforts as a Fair Trade campaigner.

Karena is a regular customer and knows exactly what's needed on church and other fair trade community stalls, particularly in relation to food products.

We asked her if she would share some of her handy hints for others keen to hold a successful stall. Of course she agreed, and here's what she had to say.

I have been involved in Fairtrade stalls for about 35 years. Many of those years were Traidcraft stalls but we always bought Kilombero rice and Meru Herb jars.

Since True Origin stepped into gap left by Traidcraft, I have been delighted that our stall has gone from strength to strength, as our customers love the products and being able to buy ‘Friends’ products has allowed us to make orders that include the other main products on our stall of coffee and chocolate!

"The main things that have helped our stall are:

• Selling in 5 local churches weekly or monthly and 2 or 3 other churches on a less regular basis and monthly Farmers’ Markets, this has helped us to reach more people.
• The new products have gone down really well, and this was very much helped by letting people see the two short videos from Black Mamba and Sunshine Nuts, which really brought home the difference it makes when we buy the products.
• We try and encourage people to think about buying goods as presents, as well as for personal use
• We have had several young people over the years helping with the stall as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteering.
• If it is possible to run a tasting event this can encourage people to buy. Chutneys on oatcakes and jam on pancakes!
• We tell the customers where the products have come from and a little bit about the people who have made them, the new leaflets will help with this".

Thanks Karena for sharing. Remember we have have a range of useful resources on our website that you can order for your stall too, from free producer case study leaflets and our annual report, to promotional items like pens and tote bags. You can order them along with you event supplies: https://trueoriginfoods.co.uk/collections/marketing-materials-point-of-sale