Transforming prison food.
Improving lives.

We are an award-winning registered charity dedicated to transforming
prison food across England and Wales.

We work alongside prison catering teams, prison staff and prisoners to improve food, nutrition and wellbeing through education, innovation and collaboration. Whether we're teaching someone to cook for the first time, supporting a prison kitchen to improve its menus or helping implement national policy, we work at every level of the prison food system to create healthier, more nutritious and more sustainable food systems.

We believe that better food can help create safer, healthier prisons where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. When we invest in prison food, we invest in people. By improving health, developing practical skills and creating opportunities for learning and employment, we help lay the foundations for healthier lives, stronger communities and a more effective justice system.

“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

What We Do

HMP Bristol

HMP Bristol was the first prison to pilot our Prison Food Education Programme, bringing together practical food education, menu development and staff training to improve the quality of food served across the prison. We introduce new recipes, deliver food education, facilitate food forums and run an in-house bakery, Rise & Prove, teaching prisoners to bake and providing fresh, homemade bread and baked goods for the prison menu. Together, these changes have reduced the number of highly processed meals on the prison's menu by 72%.
The Cookout

Based at HMP Isis in London, The Cookout is our pioneering prison café and hospitality training programme. Developed in partnership with Hawksmoor and The Right Course, it provides prisoners with hands-on training in professional cookery, baking, barista skills and customer service while preparing and serving fresh, seasonal food for prison staff and the prison visits centre. By combining real-world hospitality experience with mentoring and education, The Cookout helps people build confidence, develop employability skills and prepare for meaningful employment on release.
HMP Spring Hill

Over three years, we're working with HMP Spring Hill to develop a whole-prison approach to food that brings together food education, horticulture and sustainability. Alongside our Prison Food Education Programme, we're transforming the prison's historic walled garden and creating a new farm-to-fork training kitchen, where prisoners will learn to grow, harvest and cook fresh, seasonal produce. By restoring food-growing spaces and introducing composting systems, the project demonstrates how sustainable food systems can improve health, develop practical skills and support rehabilitation.
Mother & Baby Cooking Programme

Delivered at the Mother & Baby Unit at HMP Bronzefield, this specialist programme supports mothers and pregnant women to build confidence in cooking and nutrition during the earliest stages of parenthood. Through practical cookery sessions, participants explore healthy eating, weaning, prenatal and postnatal nutrition while preparing simple, family-friendly recipes that can be recreated beyond prison. The programme aims to strengthen health, confidence and family relationships through food.
HMP Woodhill

Our work at HMP Woodhill focused on transforming food across the prison through practical education, staff development and menu improvement. Working alongside the catering team and prisoners, we introduced more than 25 new recipes, reduced reliance on processed food and improved nutritional quality. The project significantly increased food satisfaction while giving catering staff the confidence and skills to continue driving improvements long after the programme ended.
HMP Stoke Heath

Delivered in partnership with the NHS, our programme at HMP Stoke Heath combines food education, horticulture and wellbeing. Prisoners take part in cooking classes, grow fresh produce in kitchen gardens and learn beekeeping, developing practical skills while improving their understanding of healthy eating and the wider food system. By connecting growing, cooking and wellbeing, the programme demonstrates the powerful role food can play in supporting mental health and rehabilitation.
HMP Send

Working in partnership with the University of Surrey, our programme at HMP Send used food to strengthen health, wellbeing and family relationships. Women took part in food education sessions, helped develop new recipes for the prison menu and shared meals together in the dining hall. The project culminated in a family cooking event, giving mothers and loved ones the opportunity to prepare and enjoy nutritious food together during a prison visit.
Cooking From My Culture

Cooking From My Culture celebrates the diverse cultural heritage of people in prison through food. Participants share family recipes, prepare traditional dishes and explore the stories behind them, using cooking as a way to build confidence, celebrate identity and strengthen relationships between prisoners and staff. The programme creates opportunities for connection, understanding and belonging through the universal language of food.

Why Do We Do It?

Every year, prisons across England and Wales serve almost 100 million meals. Every one of them is an opportunity to improve health, develop practical skills and create positive change.

Food is far more than fuel. It influences physical and mental health, creates opportunities to learn new skills, brings people together and shapes the culture of an entire prison. Yet despite affecting every person in prison every day, it has too often been overlooked as a powerful tool for improving health, wellbeing and rehabilitation.

We work to change that. By helping prisons improve the meals they serve, the skills they teach and the environments they create, we aim to unlock the full potential of food as a catalyst for lasting change.

England and Wales' prisons are under unprecedented pressure. Overcrowding, increasing demand, ageing estates and limited resources mean prison staff are working in some of the most challenging conditions in decades. Catering teams prepare thousands of meals every day while balancing tight budgets, security requirements and complex operational demands. Despite these pressures, food remains one of the few constants in prison life - and one of the greatest opportunities to improve health, wellbeing and rehabilitation.
Research has shown that improving nutrition in prison can reduce violent incidents by up to 37%, highlighting the important relationship between diet, behaviour and wellbeing. Studies have also linked poor nutrition to poorer mental health, while HM Inspectorate of Prisons has consistently recognised food as a fundamental part of prison life, influencing dignity, health and rehabilitation. The evidence demonstrates that improving prison food can have benefits that extend far beyond the prison servery.
Every prison is different, but catering teams are tasked with preparing hundreds or even thousands of meals every day on a food budget of around £3 per person. Balancing nutrition, security, logistics and value for money in this environment is no small feat. Across the country we meet dedicated professionals doing an extraordinary job with limited resources. With the right support, training and investment, they have the potential to achieve even more.

Make a Donation

Every donation helps us transform prison food and create opportunities for people in prison to live healthier, more hopeful lives.

As a small, award-winning charity, we're working with prisons across England and Wales to improve food, nutrition and wellbeing through education, training and innovation. From teaching someone to cook for the first time to helping prison kitchens serve healthier meals and creating pathways into employment through projects like The Cookout, every donation helps us reach more prisons and more people.

Whether you choose to make a one-off gift, become a regular supporter or fundraise on our behalf, you'll be helping us build healthier prisons, stronger communities and brighter futures.

If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so through Givey. If you're interested in supporting us as an organisation, fundraising for us or discussing a partnership, we'd love to hear from you at info@foodbehindbars.co.uk.

Make a donation