To celebrate B Corp Month, we sat down with our founder, Myles, to discuss what it means for Mindful Chef to be a B Corp and how we’re moving our company toward better, bolder, brighter things . Stay tuned to see how we move forward #thiswayforward
Tell us a little about when and why Mindful Chef first became a B Corp.
There were two reasons we really wanted to become a B Corp in 2018. The first reason was to join a global collective of companies who wanted to use their businesses as a force for good. The second was to have all the great things that our teams do at Mindful Chef validated by an external party (B Corp). From training and development opportunities to our community events, there are always great things happening at the company.
Why was this so important to you when you started your business?
As a small business, you will always face challenges when going up against larger players with much larger amounts of money. However, it is in how you operate as a business that you can differentiate yourself. When we started Mindful Chef, we always wanted the company to be about something more than just shipping food in boxes. We truly believe that you can run a profitable business while focusing on the people and planet around you. Becoming a B Corp means we continue to focus on people, the planet and future profits.
Mindful Chef was recertified as a B Corp in 2022. What did that entail?
Every 3 years you must recertify as a B Corp. The standards are constantly evolving as the community continues to provide feedback on ways assessment and accreditation can improve. By their very nature, B Corps are always trying to improve and it is this mindset that most companies try to improve upon every time they go through the assessment.
Recertification places Mindful Chef among the top 3% of food B Corps in the world – we bet it was a proud moment for you.
From a personal point of view, it has been extremely rewarding for me, Giles and Rob. We never thought our business would be held in such high esteem when we dreamed up this idea almost 10 years ago. As a team, we were able to come together and celebrate all the ways the company continued to evolve and improve. It was quite a surreal moment to share this milestone with the rest of the company.
What does being a B Corp mean to you?
For me, it’s a good way to determine if we’re going in the right direction as a company. There are many fantastic companies that are part of the B Corp family and the fact that Mindful Chef is one of them makes me extremely proud.
Has anything ever gone wrong along the way?
Of course, such is the nature of a start-up in a new category. From cans thrown over garden walls to coconut pina coladas ending up in recipes (thank goodness only to family and friends), we’ve had a lot of problems. We’ve always believed in putting our hands up when things go wrong and doing our best to learn how to move forward so we don’t make those mistakes again.
This month, we show the world how we can move forward together. What’s next on Mindful Chef’s agenda?
I’m really excited about some of our projects that are contributing to Mindful Chef’s journey to Net Zero. Things like our regenerative agriculture programs with our suppliers where we try to understand how we can reduce the impact of our ingredients at the farm level. Or raise awareness about food poverty through our partnership with One Feeds Two. Mindful Chef and its customers have now donated more than 19 million school meals to children in poverty. It’s amazing the power a community can have when it comes together as a force for good.
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It’s great to reflect on the good we’ve done and it makes us even more excited for what lies ahead. Thanks for supporting us and everything we do, here are a few things you do every time you choose Mindful Chef:
– Donate a school meal to a child living in poverty
– Fight against food waste
– Supporting British farmers
– Reduce your carbon footprint by 21%
To learn more about our B Corp status, click here.🌍