"Daily Bread can best be described as an ethical supermarket," explains Mark Osborne, "as we sell cleaning products, toiletries and baby products as well as wholefood."

Tucked off the King's Hedges Road in north Cambridge, Daily Bread has been trading for 12 years and employs 25 full, part-time and volunteer staff. Fifty per cent of the permanent workforce either have, or have had, some kind of mental health problem at some stage in their lives.

"We're an ethical supermarket," says Mark Osborne

"Our primary aim is to demonstrate that you can have a commercially viable business with very explicit social objectives," says Mark. "We provide work for those who might not otherwise be able to work, and aim to offer people empowerment in their environment which boosts their confidence and helps improve their health. A lot of the people who have support needs have been here a very long time and we have a very low staff turnover."

Mark is a Company Director, but then, as he explains, so is everyone! "Because we're a co-operative we operate a flat management structure. When you join the co-op you become a director of the company."

Daily Bread goes to great pains to ensure that all its food is ethically sourced, healthy, highly nutritious and affordable. There's a vast array of nuts, dried fruit, cereals, organic fresh fruit and vegetables, teas, cake and bread on sale - and as many products as possible are sourced or grown locally. I was shown bags of local flour which is grown and milled at a windmill just over the border in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Much of what's on offer caters to specialist diets, so this is the place to find your gluten-free food. As one of the shoppers explains: "I love that they have specialist products which are gluten free, such as bread and cakes - which are important for my diet, and I love their dried fruit. I also come here because I know that they're a caring, Christian community."

Minimum packaging - minimum fuss!

Christian values are indeed fundamental to the organisation. "We aim to value people equally," explains Mark. "The company was originally started by a group of Christians who wanted to live out their faith in the workplace - and the result was Daily Bread."

As well as the shop and warehouse, there's also a packing room full of be-hatted staff busy filling bags (made from potato starch rather than plastic!) with grains and fruit for the store. As I get there, the room empties and Mark assures me it's nothing to do with my arrival. "At 10am each morning we stop for half an hour to have prayers. We all take turns in leading the session. The idea is that we down tools and make time for putting God first. We're Ecumenical which means that all denominations are included."

But the people before profit company is facing an uncertain future in this part of Cambridge. The lease on their building runs out at the end of the year, and with rent doubling every five years, Daily Bread is keen to find larger premises to buy.

Paintings adorn the shop walls

"We really would like to stay in this part of the city, as it was a positive decision to start up here in the first place," says Mark. "King's Hedges is not one of the wealthiest areas of the city and we wanted to make sure we were right here in the heart of the community, where we were most needed.

"We want to allow people on a low income access to high qualty food at an affordable price. It's also about educating people about wholefoods and how to use them. Most of our customers are from the immediate CB4 area, although we have a number of customers who travel up to us from London."

Daily Bread is 100% funded by its trading revenue and ploughs all profit into its charitable arm - Strive - to help children in Africa and India gain access to better education.

"We'd really like to provide more security for our staff in the future," says Mark, "and so our aim is to be able to buy our own building - then we can stop worrying about crippling rent rises. We're probably going to need some help with that, but we do believe it will happen because we are a going commercial concern from an investor's point of view.

Daily Bread will be recruiting over the next few months, looking for additional staff who are committed to living this way. If anyone would like more information about the company, call 01223 423177.