Meet Ed Bachleda, organizer of Equal Exchange sales at St. Catherine of Sienna church in Portage, Mich. I recently got to meet Ed and see firsthand how he organizes his inventory, and schedules volunteers to sell Equal Exchange fairly traded products after four masses twice each month. I was very impressed! In addition to the successful biweekly sales at St. Catherine of Sienna, Ed organizes a very successful Marketplace every November.
Prior to Ed's taking the lead on Equal Exchange sales at the church, his late wife Mary had been in charge of the project for nine years. Unfortunately, Mary passed away before our visit last summer, but she is very fondly remembered by our Interfaith Customer Service folks for both her cheerful phone manner, and her huge orders! We salute Ed and all of the dedicated volunteers at St. Catherine of Sienna for their commitment to bettering the lives of small farmers around the world.