Video: Vegan café Foodstory celebrates 7 years since opening

The vegan café Foodstory on Thistle Street opened its doors 7 years ago when Lara Bishop and Sandy McKinnon put all their savings together to create an environmental-friendly place.

Lara and Sandy started a kickstarter campaign in August 2013 to raise funds for the construction of the café. But they had to start building it before knowing if they would get enough donations because they had already paid for the place and needed to open as soon as possible. They decided to build the café themselves with recycled material such as cargo crates, fruit boxes and second-hand furniture as well as the vital help from family and friends. During this time, they secured their £10 000 from the kickstarter campaign and managed to open about three months after the start of the construction.

During their second year, the team grew and the café started to open during the evenings to give a space for people to feel warm and safe during the cold winter nights. The café also started making waves in the catering industry and was elected most Promising New Business at the Elevator Business Awards 2014 and number two Best Crowdfunder in the UK in the GQ Magazine.

Year 3 kickstarted the café's famous community events where people come together to share their passion or just socialise with others. Thanks to the café expanding to the building nextdoor, it was made possible to organise live music events, yoga classes and brunches, pop-up dinners with art exhibitions and even a big Ceilidh.

In year 4, the expansion carried on to the space upstairs that was converted into a new kitchen facility, an events space, offices, and a zero waste shop. The same year, they won Best Vegetarian Café in Scotland in the Scotsman's Food and Drink Awards.

A second café with zero packaging called Foodstory Zero was opened during year 5 at the University of Aberdeen. The staff also finished converting a horse box into a catering truck and started experimenting recipes by making fermented foods like kimchi.

Dance was the theme song of year 6 for Foodstory as they turned their upstairs space into a community dance space and had 8 to 80 year olds dancing every Saturday night with a £5 plant based chili bowl. It was also a year of more pop-up dinners, art and photography exhibitions, folk music, contemporary dance, meditation, yoga and craft nights.

Year 7, the dreadful year 2020, brought a new challenge to the café as it had to close its doors in March due to the national lockdown. Foodstory launched their online café and delivery service to keep the business afloat while closed. With their deliveries, they managed to help many people that didn't have the opportunity to go out grocery shopping because of self-isolation. They reopened their café at the end of August and are now operating almost as normal while maintaining social distancing rules.

In these 7 years, Foodstory has been more than just a local business, it has brought people together, helped them grow and gave them a platform to showcase their talent and gain an audience as well as friends.

“If society is not just individuals and their families, and thriving communities do exist, then you are creating one" - Customer review for Foodstory