WHEN FOOD DOES GOOD

There’s a growing number of food companies putting more on the menu than just profit and growth. Alongside brands such as Innocent and Newman’s Own, the after-tax proceeds of which have poured millions into global charities, there are plenty of smaller, enlightened outfits injecting generosity into their business plans and soul into the food and drink they serve. Kerry Fowler meets three of them

RARE TEA COMPANY PHOTOGRAPH: PAUL WINCH-FURNESS. MIEN TAY PHOTOGRAPH: MING TANG-EVANS

Henrietta knows the true value of business partnership

Tea lady Henrietta Lovell set up The Rare Tea Company in 2004. She deals directly with responsible growers, personally knows the communities who are reliant on the harvest of the hand-crafted tea and regularly donates to charity.

“If you have an ethical angle to your job, it makes you feel proud enough to grin” HENRIETTA LOVELL, THE RARE TEA COMPANY (rareteacompany.com)

When I started Rare Tea I was just thinking about bringing back great leaf tea to the UK. I was so naive... I hadn’t understood the set-up of the tea business, but working with the trade in India and Africa showed me how exploitative it can be. You see people living on £1 a day, with a life expectancy in their 30s, and it affects you. I realised there was a mission beyond bringing back great tea.