We want to hear from you!

We want to hear from you!

As we continue to fine-tune the new grocery element of our community store, we could use your input on your shopping habits and grocery preferences. We would be so grateful if you would take 5-10 minutes to fill out our survey. As a thank you for your time, if you complete it before July 5, you’ll have a chance to win a drawing for a $100 World Fare gift card!

Here is the survey: https://forms.gle/UTSHyDiNyjjxH4Kg7

While you’re at it, we’d love it if you liked us on Facebook! It will help us become visible to more people and keep you in touch with sales, events, and new inventory.

See you at the store soon

We have new local, organic, and fair trade products coming in every week. Plus, we’re able to accept EBT payments now!

Some favorite grocery items right now include:

  • Local foods: Moo-ville ice cream & dairy, Jake’s fish and meats, local maple syrup, honey, and eggs, plus produce from the Huss Project Farm
  • Organic foods: Cold drinks, sugar-free candy, single frozen treats, healthy bars, chips and snacks (Barbara’s Cheese Puffs fly off the shelves!)
  • Fair Trade: Women’s Bean Project soups and mixes. The Golden Cornbread mix and scone mixes are currently on sale!

Join the Buyer’s Club!

Join the Buyer’s Club!

For an annual or monthly fee, Buyer’s Club members receive 15% off purchases of any items in the store, as well as the option to place bulk special orders through our primary grocery supplier, United Natural Foods, Inc., at 15% above wholesale price. UNFI has a huge stock of natural, organic, and specialty food items as well as some non-food household essentials.

In order to make participation accessible, we offer a variety of payment options:

  • Annual payment of $150
  • Monthly payment of $12.50
  • Become a regular volunteer to waive the fee!
  • No fee is charged for households receiving food assistance (contact us to sign up)

Sign up online now or in the store during your next visit! 

Announcing our NEW natural and organic grocery line!

Announcing our NEW natural and organic grocery line!

You love the chocolate bars, the soup mixes, and the coffee, and now: we’ve expanded our grocery items! Check out our new selection of organic and natural dry goods, pantry essentials, and refrigerated and frozen foods.

We’ve wanted to increase our selection of food for a long time, while staying connected to our values of buying fair trade, supporting communities near and far, and living gently on the earth. A small group of volunteers have worked hard to make this idea a reality, so that local customers can find healthy food right here in downtown Three Rivers.

Made possible by a combination of loans and sales, we’ve added refrigerators and freezers as well as shelves to provide a wide selection of products. We’re proud to partner with a number of local farms and producers to bring their offerings to our community. In a jaunt through our store, you’ll find:

  • Dairy products from Moo-ville Creamery in Nashville, Michigan: milk, ice cream, cheese, and cheese curds. Yum!
  • Meat from Jake’s Country Meats: chicken, sausage, bacon, and more
  • Eggs from pastured chickens at Joe’s Farm in Three Rivers
  • Canned goods such as beans and soups
  • Jars of salsa, tomato sauce, peanut butter, and jams
  • Flour, pasta, crackers, and cereal
  • Dried fruit and nuts
  • Frozen vegetables, frozen pizzas, and other convenient heat-and-eat items
  • Condiments: salad dressing, soy sauce, mustard…
  • …and more!

Also, to help loyal customers save money, you can join our new Buyer’s Club. For a fee of $150 per year (or $12.50 per month), Buyer’s Club members will receive 15% off purchases of any items in the store, as well as the option to place special orders through our primary grocery supplier, United Natural Foods, Inc., at 15% above wholesale price. Sign up online now or sign up in the store during your next visit!

We hope to add other facets soon, such as accepting SNAP food assistance as a payment method and launching an online ordering system. Lastly, we hope that this expansion will increase the sustainability of our store, to the point that we can hire a manager to operate the day-to-day workings.

We’re very excited about this new grocery line, and we hope to see you in the store soon! Please wear a mask to shop. Our current hours are:

  • Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 12pm-6pm
  • Saturday, 10am-4pm

Safe shopping options at World Fare

Safe shopping options at World Fare

Our amazing volunteers are standing by to support your safe gift shopping needs this holiday season

It’s been a year of incredible disruption for individuals and businesses throughout our community. Your extra efforts to shop locally this holiday season will make a HUGE difference…but can you do so safely? Our World Fare leadership team and volunteers have collaborated with creativity and commitment to keep our doors open in support of our farmer and artisan partners. Here’s what to expect as a customer:

  • Please refer to the COVID symptom and exposure checklist posted on the door before entering the store. If you are sick or if you have been exposed to others who may be positive, please stay home and take good care of yourself. Our volunteers share this commitment as well to keep you safe.
  • Masks that cover mouth and nose are required inside the store for all customers and volunteers, and hand sanitizer is available at both front and back entrances.
  • Maximum capacity in the store is 7 people. If you come to shop and the store looks full, just phone us at (269) 273-1253 and we’ll call you right back as soon as things slow down. The capacity and phone number are also posted on the front and back doors for easy reference.
  • If you desire an appointment for a personal shopping time in the store or virtual shopping from home, please give us a call or reply to this e-mail. We’ll be happy to connect you with a volunteer who can assist you.
  • Consider gifting your loved ones with Fare Thee Well gift boxes, which can easily be ordered online from the safety of home and will be shipped directly to the recipient.

Thank you for all you’re doing to help keep our community safe! It’s a long haul, but this is why we practice kindness and compassion every day: so we’re ready to support one another in times of crisis. Keep it up, friends!

World Fare introduces the Fare The Well Box, a personally-curated box of fair trade and earth-friendly goodies!

World Fare introduces the Fare The Well Box, a personally-curated box of fair trade and earth-friendly goodies!

Gift Box

Looking for a creative way to support your local community fair trade store? Need a pick-me-up delivered to a loved one’s door, or even your own door? Then select from a variety of sweet themes and we will fill your Fare Thee Well Box with beautiful, creative, and delicious items from World Fare.

Many of the economically-disadvantaged farmers and artisans World Fare supports are struggling to make ends meet as COVID-19 hits their communities and vendor orders decline. These boxes of bounty lift up our values of justice and solidarity by investing in the good work of our partner organizations as they continue to prioritize people and planet during this difficult time. Thank you for your partnership and friendship!

How it works:

  • Review box sizes and themes to make your selection.
  • Fill out the order form.
  • A World Fare volunteer will confirm your order.
  • You’ll receive a Square invoice by e-mail that you can pay online.
  • We’ll pack and ship your order to the recipient.

Box themes 

Choose your budget with classic ($35-$40) or deluxe ($55-$60), and then choose your theme! We’ll pack your box with unique items based on your budget, theme, and any notes you include on the order form about your recipient’s preferences. Visit our web site for more information about these fun themes:

  • Fashion Distraction
  • Jolly Good Time
  • My Cup Overfloweth
  • Meditative Moments
  • Sweet and Spice
  • Pamper
  • Nourish with Flourish
  • Creature Comforts

Announcing: A Chocolate Affair 2020!

Announcing: A Chocolate Affair 2020!

Join us Saturday, February 8, from 2-4 p.m.

It’s time for our annual celebration of love and chocolate!

Do you love to bake or cook? Throw your hat into the ring for a chance to win a prize! You can enter online now; just remember to purchase your fair trade chocolate from World Fare for your delicacy.

Do you love to eat chocolate in all its forms? Come out to taste and vote! Voting for A Chocolate Affair will take place from 2:00-3:30 p.m. during the event. First place in People’s Choice, the top prize, will come with a $50 gift certificate for World Fare, and additional prizes will award second place, third place, Most Original and Best Presentation.

A Chocolate Affair is always a wonderfully tasty way to get ready for Valentine’s Day. See you there!

A Delightfully Chocolate-y Affair!

A Delightfully Chocolate-y Affair!

Six bakers competed for the prizes

A Chocolate Affair 2019
Winners: Allie Host, Vesta Thompson, Cian Monroe, and Lori Minor

World Fare had a wonderfully successful Chocolate Affair on Saturday, February 9! Six cooks entered the competition with samples for visitors to taste, and the deliciousness made it difficult to decide who to vote for! Our esteemed judges, who selected Most Original and Best Presentation, were City Commissioner Janell Hart, TRHS band director Bryan VanToll, and local handyman Gene VanDeraa. The winners were decided as follows:

  • Lori Minor for First Place People’s Choice with chocolate macarons
  • Allie Yost for Second Place People’s Choice and Best Presentation with chocolate and chocolate coffee macarons
  • Cian Monroe for Third Place People’s Choice with pistachio slice cookies
  • Becca Sonday and Vesta Thompson for Most Original with strawberry and chocolate sorbets

There was also delicious toffee with nuts and a cherry chocolate English pudding in the running! Check out the Three Rivers Commercial-News article for more details on the event: page 1 and page 2.

We are grateful to the community for the support of our mission through this fun annual event. We’ll see you next year!

Love chocolate? Love baking? Enter A Chocolate Affair!

Love chocolate? Love baking? Enter A Chocolate Affair!

February 9
2:00-4:00p.m.

A Chocolate Affair

Join us for our annual celebration of love and chocolate on February 9, from 2:00 to 4:00p.m.! We need all the bakers and chocolate maestros out there to enter their creations for the chocolate-loving public to enjoy and vote on. You can enter online now; just remember to purchase your fair trade chocolate from World Fare for your delicacy!

Then we need folks to come out to taste and vote! Voting for A Chocolate Affair will take place from 2:00-3:30 p.m. during the event. First place in People’s Choice, the top prize, will come with a $50 gift certificate for World Fare, and additional prizes will award second place, third place, Most Original and Best Presentation.

A Chocolate Affair is always a wonderfully tasty way to get ready for Valentine’s Day. Come on out!

Celebrating our 15th Anniversary

15th Anniversary

On Sunday during the 25th Annual HarmonyFest in Downtown Three Rivers, our little store celebrated its 15th Anniversary! During those 15 years, our faithful volunteers have spent more than 31,000 hours running the store and connecting our community with artisans and farmers from around the world. To celebrate, we gave away 15 prizes throughout the day, served special treats in the store, and commissioned our friend Elisabeth Wenger to write a poem, which she read from the main stage at 6:30 (see below). Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate … and here’s to 15 more years!


World Fare’s 15th Anniversary: An Exhortation

A store is never just a store.
While it’s true that a business is not a person,
no matter what our government says,
A business is made by people,
peopled, populated and conceived
of, in minds expansive and strange.

Make a choice—to what business
will you give the strength in your arms,
the branching electricity in your brain?
To what group of people,
with what dream,
will you go?

And the work of the people of the business
takes on the life its been given,
as long as the people keep caring.

Fifteen years these people have cared for a store!
Remember fifteen?
The hot passion, the standing up for what you believed in
with the thrill of standing for justice,
with the strength of a David
facing down Goliath. Impossible.
Magnificent. Teenaged energy
and clear sight, acknowledging the impossible
and attempting it anyway.

May the people who people this store
keep dreaming, keep the passion.
May they imagine new worlds
or ways to be, may they fight
with fifteen’s fervor for an impossibility,
And, most of all,
may they remain people,
individual and uniquely strange,
caring about people.