In celebration of B Corp month, we sat down with our founder, Myles, to chat about what it means for Mindful Chef to be a B Corp.

Tell us a little bit about when & why Mindful Chef first became a B Corp.

There were 2 reasons we really wanted to become a B Corp back in 2018. The first reason was to join a global collective of businesses who wanted to use their businesses as a force for good. The second was to have an external party (B Corp) validate all of the great things that our teams do at Mindful Chef. From the L&D opportunities to our community events, there are lots of really good things happening around the business all the time.

Why was it so important to you when you first started the business?

Being a small business you’re always going to be up against it when taking on the bigger players with far bigger sums of money. However, where you can differentiate yourself is how you operate as a business. When we started Mindful Chef we always wanted the business to stand for something more than just sending food in boxes. We really believe that you can run a good profitable business while also focusing on people and the planet around you at the same time. Becoming a B Corp means we continue to focus on people, the planet and profit into the future.

Mindful Chef recertified as a B Corp in 2022. What did this involve?

Every 3 years you need to recertify as a B Corp. The standards are always evolving as the community continues to give feedback on ways in which the assessment and accreditation can improve. By their very nature, B Corps are always trying to get better and it is this mindset that most companies try to improve each time they go through the assessment.

The recertification puts Mindful Chef in the top 3% of food B Corps globally – we bet that was a proud moment for you.

From a personal perspective it was extremely rewarding for myself, Giles and Rob. We never believed that our business would be regarded in such high esteem when we dreamed up the idea nearly 10 years ago. As a team, we were able to come together and celebrate all of the ways the business has continued to evolve and get better. It was quite a surreal moment sharing the milestone with the rest of the business.

What does being a B Corp business mean to you?

To me, it’s a good way to gauge whether we are heading in the right direction as a business. There are a lot of fantastic businesses that are part of the B Corp family and for Mindful Chef to be 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 boxes being thrown over garden walls to coconut pina coladas ending up in recipes (thank goodness only to family and friends) we’ve had many things go wrong. We’ve always believed in holding our hands up when things do go wrong and then doing our best to learn how to move forward so we don’t make those mistakes again.

This B Corp month, we’re showing the world how we can move forward together. What’s next on the agenda for Mindful Chef?

I’m really excited about some of our projects that contribute to Mindful Chef’s journey to Net Zero. Things like our regenerative agriculture programmes with our suppliers where we are trying to understand how we can reduce the impact of our ingredients at a farm level. Or driving awareness of food poverty through our partnership with One Feeds Two. Mindful Chef and its customers have now donated over 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.