When we were kids, we enjoyed food in the uncomplicated, unexamined way kids do. We satisfied our appetites with little thought to what it was we were eating.  I, personally, had a deep love of animals, and like everyone else, I ate them too.

My insatiable love of meat got snuffed out when I ‘truly’ connected with a pig at an animal protest rally in Hobart, Tasmania in my mid 20s (thank you Emma Haswell, of Brightside Farm Sanctuary). Of course I’d been around pigs before, but perhaps because of the context, and my growing awareness of the world around me, this time the connection was profound.  I had a light bulb moment, and in that instant, I became vegetarian.  Right then and there a little fire began to burn inside of me, an igniting of a passion that matched my love of animals. I felt increasingly confident about this journey that I now had the courage to undertake.

I then met Simon, the love of my life. He’s been by my side for 9 years now, and continues to balance my emotion-driven passion with his rationale and thirst for knowledge. Simon is passionate about our planet, and his love of the natural environment gradually taught me to broaden my circle of compassion to the people, the earth and all that it sustains. He is driven to make sustainable and healthier food choices accessible to every member of society. As a natural progression in our own particular journey together, vegetarian to vegan happened slowly with love, self-compassion, some often very confronting realisations and an open-minded attitude. Not surprisingly, cheese was the last thing to go.

As happens often when values align and passions are ignited, an idea was born.  We eagerly combined our thoughts into one colossal vision in 2018 and began to establish our plant based cheesy enterprise to spread the good to each and every one of you. 

Together, we welcome you, no matter why you are here. Because we know that, like us, each person has their own unique life story, connections and motivations that leads them to our products. We are led by the sentiment “Feed your kindness’.  It’s a bit abstract so that it can be interpreted in an entirely subjective way by you. It essentially translates to you nourishing your body with food that matches your own personal truth.

I tell you my little story so that you can see we at Lauds are just human beings on the journey of life just like you. I honour you for opening your heart and mind to the idea that plants can sustain you, satisfy you and nourish your body with a kindness that gives to all of us, and the world, in far greater capacity than any one of us can ever imagine.

Dani – Lauds Founder