The story so far...
Liberty Kitchen was established in 2017 at HMP Pentonville and to date over 140 men have benefitted from a 10-week catering and business skills training programme. Thirty prison leavers have also benefitted from part-time work on Liberty Kitchen's street food stalls at markets and/or events.
“Liberty Kitchen couldn’t have done any more for me. I’m 99.9% sure I would have gone back inside. It’s changed my stream of thinking. I want to give back to society now.”
Street Foods...its balls
Liberty Kitchen's unique street food menu is all about balls. The theme was selected as Liberty Kitchen's focus to engage prisoners and prison leavers, as it enables each person to create their own 'street ball'.
Whilst the street food favourites of Roman Road meatballs, Mac and Cheese balls and Kew Garden Veggie Balls are served at weekly markets, we now have 90+ Liberty Kitchen ball recipes that we offer at events.
Reducing Reoffending
A job at a market or at an event for prison leavers upon release provides a crucial ‘stepping stone’ to the outside world. The income, stability and a supportive environment gives people time to address housing, family and longer-term employment needs.
“I believe my time with Liberty Kitchen has made me feel more secure in myself and have the confidence to face all working challenges in the future.
What next?
We'd now like to build on the successes and lessons learnt from the first five years of the programme.
Our vision is to adapt and extend Liberty Kitchen's training programme offer and through the gate support to broader groups of men at HMP Pentonville. Within the prison we want to extend our training offer. This would include developing the programme meet the learning needs and aspirations of both younger men (aged 18-25 years) and men with neurodiversity.
We also want to run more family days, where men have the chance to cook with their children and families for a day.
On the outside, we want to better support our growing network of men making the transition from part-time work with us to work with other organisation/companies.
We are seeking...
Liberty Kitchen needs funding to help us extend both our offer inside HMP Pentonville and through the gate support.
Please support us to make a huge difference.