We believe that food has the power to transform people’s lives.

We are a Registered Charity dedicated to transforming the food served in British prisons.

We work with prisons across England & Wales on the subject of food, to improve the lives of those eating it and support the people making it. Our aim is to positively impact the health and wellbeing of prisoners, by delivering practical food-based education, promoting healthy eating and designing exciting food and drink initiatives. We know that good food in prison can create a happier, healthier prison system, with rehabilitation at its heart. This is the backbone of what we do.

“The meal was great but was topped by reflections of me and my peers sharing our gratitude for each other and the experience we were having together. Needless to say these are treasured moments that seldom happen behind prison walls. For me it was practical, educational, enjoyable, but most of all spiritual. An amazing project for inside the prison walls. It is called Food Behind Bars, but in my opinion should be called Freedom Behind Bars, with food."

— Course Participant, HMP Stoke Heath

Our Projects

HMP Bristol

In March 2025, we began a 6 month project piloting our new Prison Food Education Programme at HMP Bristol, a Category B men’s prison. We’re delivering training in the prison kitchen, working with the catering team on new recipes and menus, engaging the prison population through food forums and tastings, and planting food in the prison grounds. We’ve helped set up an in-house bakery, Rise & Prove, teaching prisoners how to bake and getting fresh, homemade baked items onto the menu.
Cooking From My Culture

Cooking From My Culture is a cultural cooking programme designed for ethnic minority prisoners. It was delivered at HMP Bristol in May 2023 and at HMP Wealstun in November 2023. The programme is designed to give prisoners the opportunity to share, learn and bond through food that represents their cultural heritage. It also enables them to break down barriers with staff during a heritage potluck lunch at the end of the course.
Food 360

Food 360 is our holistic food education programme, delivered in a variety of establishments including HMP Stafford, HMP Drake Hall, HMP Downview and HMP Manchester. The aim of Food 360 is to influence, excite and inspire prisoners around food, allowing them to make healthier food choices and equipping them with skills to utilise during their sentence and beyond release. Food 360 takes the form of a practical programme of cooking classes that covers a variety of subjects, cuisines and ideas
HMP Woodhill

We spent 8 months at HMP Woodhill, a Category A prison in Milton Keynes. The project was centred around empowering and upskilling the catering team, educating the prison population around food and promoting health and wellbeing through nutritious, homemade meals. We rolled out over 25 new recipes on the prison menu and reduced the amount of processed food. This led to a 150% rise in food satisfaction rates and staff reporting an increase in skills and job satisfaction.
HMP East Sutton Park

We delivered a unique professional butchery programme in HMP East Sutton Park, a women’s open prison in Kent and home to the prison system’s only in-house butchery. We taught groups of women the fundamentals of nose-to-tail butchery, using organic meat reared on the prison’s working farm. They produce professional products that are sold in the prison's farm shop and learn all the skills associated with becoming a professional butcher. The meat is also used on prison menus, providing a vital source of local, ethical meat.
HMP Stoke Heath

We are delivering a 12-month cooking and food programme at HMP Stoke Heath, in collaboration with the NHS. We have established two kitchen gardens where men engage in weekly outdoor food growing workshops, as well as beekeeping. All produce grown is used in weekly cooking classes, where participants learn how to cook and eat well. The programme supports the emotional wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable individuals in the prison, by enabling them to gain a range of skills around cooking, healthy eating, horticulture and the food system.
HMP Send

In Spring 2025, we delivered a project at HMP Send, a women’s prison in Surrey, in collaboration with the University of Surrey’s Doing Porridge study. We hosted a series of lunchtime events, encouraging women to eat together and share exciting, nutritious food in the prison’s dining hall. New recipes were developed and rolled out in collaboration with the catering team, and prisoners took part in our food education classes. The project concluded with a food-themed family day where women were able to cook lunch and enjoy it with their loved ones as part of a special visit in the dining hall.
Mother & Baby Cooking Programme

In 2025, we extended our food education programme to the Mother & Baby unit of HMP Bronzefield, a women’s prison in Surrey. It’s the first time we have expanded our food education work to mums, babies and pregnant women in prison. The programme helps enable them to explore different weaning techniques, learn about the importance of nutrition for children and look after themselves during prenatal and postpartum periods. All recipes are designed to be healthy, family-friendly and simple - the idea being that they can be cooked and shared together.

Why do we do it?

We believe that wholesome and delicious food has the power to equip prisoners with the increased knowledge, skills and wellbeing they need to help them achieve a good quality of life on the outside. More nutritious food can also help ease some of the chronic issues in British prisons: violence, mental heath and reoffending. Prison food has never received the level of attention and investment as food in other institutional settings. This is something we are determined to change.

Prison food varies greatly from each establishment. However, the average prison meal is often repetitive, uninspiring and lacking in the key nutrients required to equip prisoners with a balanced diet. Prison catering teams are under-resourced, understaffed and under pressure. They are producing and serving thousands of meals per day in a logistically-challenging environment that leaves little room for innovation or creativity. Many individuals are leaving prison with a poor relationship with food that has a negative impact on their future lives.
Prisons serve three meals per day on a budget of around £3 per head. In 2016, a report on prison food by HM Inspectorate of Prisons concluded that poor quality prison food was impacting everything from violence to behaviour, mental health and rehabilitation. However, increased nutrition amongst prisoners has been statistically proven to reduce violent offences by 37%. Research has shown that poor diet is linked to poor mental health - individuals classified as obese have a 55% higher risk of developing depression. It’s estimated that two thirds of the prison population suffer from mental health issues. Good food has the potential to change this.
Our prisons aren’t working. There are 88,000 prisoners in the UK - the highest on record. Overcrowding, understaffing and poor living conditions are widespread - 65% of prisons are holding more individuals than they were designed for. The health and wellbeing of prisoners is at a record low and self harm is at a record high. Poor quality food is exasperating the situation further. Prisons are under the spotlight like never before and a new approach is desperately needed.

Make a donation

There are plenty of ways you can get involved with Food Behind Bars and we are always looking for passionate people who share our vision.

Our work is reliant on funding. Without this support, we wouldn’t be able to deliver our groundbreaking work in prisons across England and Wales. We are a small, grassroots charity with big ambitions - there has never been a more important time to contribute to our mission. If you are an individual and would like to make a donation, you can do so online by visiting our fundraising platform Givey. If you would like to discuss a fundraising activity or event, make a regular donation or are an organisation who is interested in supporting us - drop us a line at info@foodbehindbars.co.uk.

We appreciate a donation of any size, big or small. Thank you for your support.

Make a donation