Daniel Lubetzky

 KIND is ready for its close up in the Vanity Fair Beauty Blog. Read the full story after the jump.

“Three things in human life are important, the first is to be kind, the second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind.”—Henry James

So reads the quote—or mission statement, if you will—on the home page of Kind, a company best known, perhaps, for its sweet-and-savory Kind Bars. These days, the bars are almost everywhere: your local deli, the Starbucks around the corner, and for us Condé Nast–ers our very own fourth-floor cafeteria.

But here’s a lesser-known fact about Kind: they’ve actually been around for 20 years, under the blanket of parent company PeaceWorks, long before companies with a social conscious became something of a trend.

Founded by Daniel Lubetzky in early 90s, the original mission of PeaceWorks was to use business as a force to bring neighboring countries together, taking on mutually beneficial economic initiatives through healthy foods. Lubetzky—a Mexican Jew and the son of a Holocaust survivor—had been deeply passionate about building bridges since his youth. Over the years, as the company took shape, PeaceWorks ultimately became a health-food company.

Out of Lubetzky’s own frustration with snacking options while traveling, Kind itself was established as its own entity in 2003. “I was traveling a lot, and I was starting ventures all over, working late nights,” says Lubetzky. “And whenever I needed a snack, I felt my options were things that tasted like cardboard or plastic. Or they were too indulgent or too artificial.”

And so he decided to come up with a solution himself, creating the first Kind product, a whole-fruit-and-nut bar. It was something, Lubetzky says, “that you could eat, and see everything that you were putting into your body.” He even went so far as to develop special technology to create a transparent wrapper. At the time, that had never been done.

But Lubetzky also wanted to make Kind more than just your average food company, so he had an entire team dedicated to a program called “Do the KIND Thing,” made up of a quarter-million “Kindaholics,” who are challenged each month to do (and report on) a small act of kindness, with the hope that it will have a ripple effect.

Kind is a company also dedicated to newness, and their next venture is no exception to that rule: this month they’ll launch their first gluten-free granola bar—the Kind Healthy Grains Bars, in flavors such as Dark Chocolate Chunk, Maple Pumpkin Seeds with Sea Salt, and Vanilla Blueberry. Throw one in your gym bag, your desk drawer, or even your fridge for a late-night snack. Whenever you choose to indulge, take solace in that you’re being kind—to your taste buds, to yourself, and to the world.