Launching a new three-year programme at HMP Spring Hill

We are thrilled to announce the launch of an ambitious new three-year programme at HMP Spring Hill – our largest and most ambitious project to date.

Made possible through the incredible generosity of the Rothschild Foundation, whose £300,000 investment is supporting this work, the programme marks a major milestone for Food Behind Bars. Their commitment will enable us to work alongside prison staff and people in prison to reimagine what a prison food system can look like.

As an open prison, HMP Spring Hill offers a unique environment where people can develop practical skills, take on greater responsibility and prepare for life after release. Set within its grounds is a remarkable Victorian walled garden, which will be restored as part of the project to grow fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs for the prison kitchen.

The programme brings together three interconnected strands of work to create a whole-prison approach to food: improving the quality of meals through our Prison Food Education Programme, revitalising the historic market garden, and creating a new farm-to-fork education kitchen where people in prison can learn to grow, cook and prepare fresh, seasonal food.

With a communal dining hall already at the heart of the prison, there is also an exciting opportunity to improve the everyday dining experience, helping to create meals that bring people together while supporting health, wellbeing and rehabilitation.

By connecting food production, food education and food quality, the project aims to create a prison food system where fresh ingredients grown on site are transformed into nutritious meals, giving people in prison valuable skills, confidence and pathways into employment.

We hope the programme will become a blueprint for what's possible across the prison estate, demonstrating how food can be a catalyst for healthier prisons, stronger communities and lasting rehabilitation.