Organic banana smoothies, apple and blueberry muffins and buckwheat pancakes – sounds delicious. But keep your paws off, this isn’t for you. This is what’s on the menu for your dog.
Organic banana smoothies, apple and blueberry muffins and buckwheat pancakes – sounds delicious. But keep your paws off, this isn’t for you. This is what’s on the menu for your dog.
Lily’s Kitchen provides pets with gourmet food fit for any human.
Hampstead’s Henrietta Morrison started Lily’s Kitchen in 2008 after her beloved border terrier developed a skin condition from eating processed dog food.
Lily is chief taster for the food and recipes developed in the kitchen, and nothing is approved that hasn’t met her standards. There are meatballs, haggis and ice cream for dessert. Or, for something seasonal, try a Halloween hot pot.
There’s no scrimping on quality here – Henrietta makes Lily’s food from ingredients she would be happy eating herself.
And it’s not just her pooch she’s keeping happy. Lily’s Kitchen is socially and environmentally conscious as well as pet friendly.
“We are at a time where being a conscious business makes the most sense,” says Henrietta. “Business for profit only is not inspiring and would not be enough to get us out of bed in the morning.”
A founding member of B-Corp UK, an offshoot of the US organisation started up by Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia, set up to “use business as a force for good.
“I am particularly proud of Lily’s Kitchen’s charity work, which has to date supported hundreds of animal charities,” she says.
“We know a healthy pet is a happy pet so we hope that by providing a bit of food goodness we can help charities shoulder the burden of caring for animals in their care.”
One of the charities on the roster is Crack+Cider, where you can buy packs to be donated to homeless people.
As the weather turns colder and winter is on the horizon, Henrietta is committed to doing all she can to help those with no roof over their heads.
“When we read about Crack+Cider’s approach to helping the homeless when it launched last winter, we knew we wanted to get involved,” she says. “Nothing saddens us more than a pet in need and nothing brings more joy to us than helping less fortunate pets when we are able to. The homeless dogs of London keep rough sleepers warm, offer companionship and security and with only nine per cent of UK shelters accepting dogs, it’s incredibly important to keep them well and fed.”
One of this nine per cent is St Mungo’s, with whom Lily’s Kitchen has also partnered up to offer help and advice to residents.
“For me, the real stand-out success story to date has been a man who left his home country, Eritrea, due to its volatile and dangerous state, travelling through numerous countries before coming to the UK. He is working hard to improve his English, going to weekly classes and is also looking hard for a job.
“It was such a pleasure to meet him and to be able to give him tips and techniques for upcoming interviews. He impressed us so much, that we offered him three days of casual work in our warehouse.”
To find out how to donate the canine care pack, visit crackandcider.com.
Recipes, dry and wet dog food and treats can be bought from lilyskitchen.co.uk.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here