There’s a new café in town. Kindness & Co specialises in healthy, nutritious food to eat in or take away. They open their doors on Monday 23rd January and last Friday I popped along to see what makes Kindness & Co stand out from the rest. Here's 5 reasons to visit

Be healthier, live longer

Unsurprisingly, the main thing that sets this place apart is the food offering. Everything here is good for you which is great news if, like me, you walk into places with the best intentions but leave with all the trimmings and a packet of Walkers. Here you can’t be derailed. In fact it seems the more you have, the healthier you’ll be. Winning.

I’m not much of a connoisseur of super-healthy food but I really enjoyed my lunch which, being saddled with an inexplicable permanent yearning for carbs and salt, is a really good sign. Going to Kindness & Co once a week will probably add a few months to my life expectancy.

There's lots of choice and it's good value

There’s a range of hearty, filling salads (with an option to add meat or fish), daily hot food options, soup and cakes (yup) as well as teas, coffees and smoothies.

The salads start at £3.95 and the hot food on Friday (Black Bean and Red Kidney Bean Chilli) was £7.95.

The salads on offer included Butter Beans and Rosemary, Broccoli, Mixed Beans & Chilli, Roasted Squash & Red Pepper and Red Rice. On top of those you could add salmon fishcakes or lemon chicken.

It's chilled

The café is over two floors with the service area upstairs and seating downstairs. This means that if you’re eating in, it’s quiet and peaceful without the sound of the coffee machine, take-out crowds or the draft from doors. I found it quite tranquil downstairs actually, like maybe I could read a book (okay, okay, Grazia magazine).

Kindness and Kids

Founder and owner Carol has made a special effort to make parents with young children feel welcome. Upstairs there’s a buggy park and water station. Downstairs in the seating area, along with everyone’s favourite Ikea Antilop highchairs, there’s also mini chairs and a table for toddlers. Being enclosed downstairs also makes keeping an eye on fidgeters easier.

Food-wise it’s simple; children can have a half-size portion of anything for half the price. With all the branded/processed options out of the picture, it’s a bit easier to keep kids on track and having a grown-up’s lunch has a pretty high excitement rating too.

Pay it Forward

Apart from providing a tasty and nutritious pit-stop for people in Cheltenham, Kindness & Co are working hard to make sure that everyone benefits from the café.

Bottled water provider, One Water, give a quarter of their profits plus 2 pence per litre sold to building wells in Africa. In just over 10 years they have given over £14 million for sustainable water projects; providing clean, safe water to over 3 million people in the world’s poorest communities. Their aim is to raise £20 million by 2020.

For every loaf of gluten free GiFt bread sold, bakers Hobbs House provide a loaf of bread to children in Tanzania. They have been working alongside the charity Ifakara Bakery Project and through a bakery set up in Ifakara, bread is donated to malnourished children.

Carol told me a bit about the idea behind Kindness & Co, ‘I have always wanted to open a café. It’s been a lifelong dream but with the UK suffering from an obesity epidemic and the easy-to-access high calorie snacks available in cafes, I didn’t want to be part of that problem. The only way I could consciously open a café was to try and be part of the solution so this is me doing my bit. Offering non-processed food, high in nutrition.’

Kindness & Co is on Clarence Street opposite Boston Tea Party.

They are open Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm and 10am to 5pm Sundays and Bank Holidays.

For more information visit the website here.

Laura, January 2017