Many food co-ops produce their own publicity materials such as leaflets and posters. 

You should include as much information as possible about how your food co-op runs. The location, opening times, and a contact phone number or email are important, and you might also want to include a short description of why your food co-op was set up and the benefits of shopping there. If you are running a bag scheme, you might consider including the cost and whether they have to be preordered. 

If you’re not a brilliant designer, you might want to ask someone you know to help design your printed materials. You could even run a competition together with a local school to design a logo!

When preparing leaflets and posters, if any details such as opening times or phone numbers are likely to change it is best to only print a small number of leaflets at a time, as and when you need them. Simple black and white leaflets or posters can be designed and printed from a home computer. There are several websites offering flyer templates, so if you’re not familiar with graphic design software this could be a good option. Printing in colour is more expensive, but if you’ve got a good design they can be attractive and eye-catching. 

To figure out whether printed promotional materials are worth the expense, it is a good idea to ask new customers where they heard about the food co-op - or you might even offer a discount for new customers bringing the leaflet along. Often a well-placed poster is much more effective than door-to-door leafleting. If you’re running a co-op at a school or housing association, you might want to ask if leaflets can be handed out to parents or residents at other events. 


To find more useful food co-op related information visit our homepage

Food Co-ops toolkit: The Food Co-ops Toolkit will give you all the information you need to set up your own food co-op.

Useful documents:

Fruit and vegetable images that you can use to make your own marketing materials:

Free publicity materials for fruit and veg co-ops
Sustain have free leaflets for food co-ops that have a full colour design on the front but are left blank on the back so you can add your own details. We also have large banners. To order copies e-mail: foodcoops@sustainweb.org

Support our charity

Your donation will help us support communities to set up and run food coops and buying groups across the UK to improve access to healthy food.

Donate

Sustain
The Green House
244-254 Cambridge Heath Road
London E2 9DA

020 3559 6777
sustain@sustainweb.org

Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.

© Sustain 2024
Registered charity (no. 1018643)
Data privacy & cookies

Sustain