Are you hoping to make changes

Are you hoping to make changes to the way food is used and served in your prison? 

Are you hoping to make changes

Would you like to offer training to staff in your prison around working with food? 

Are you hoping to make changes

Would you like to bring a nutrition and wellbeing course to a prison? 

Whether you’re working with food from the inside or outside of the prison system, we can help. As a charity with years experience across the criminal justice system, we work with volunteers, prisoners, staff, and local government to improve prison food systems. We do this by delivering food and wellbeing programmes in prisons, supporting and training staff to feel more confident around food, and influencing policy at a national level. 

We understand the unique challenges of working within the criminal justice system—whether it’s navigating security protocols, working to prison timelines, or gaining clearance and approval on projects. We’re experienced in working around these constraints to help design and deliver projects that make a meaningful impact. Our whole-prison, rehabilitative approach to food supports both individual wellbeing and systemic change, and we can work with you to apply this approach to your project, or across an entire prison setting.  

15+

Years’ experience working across the prisons estate to improve diet and wellbeing for those in custody

90,000

Copies of Her Wellbeing distributed across the prison estate

What we Offer

We offer bespoke support for prisons, with support for prisoners, prison officers, governors, and more.

Her Wellbeing / His Wellbeing

Monthly newsletter focussing on mental-health and nutrition, available both online and in-cell to support individuals in male and female estates with their wellbeing. The newsletter can form an integral part of a prison’s health and wellbeing strategy and can help meet requirements set by HM Inspector of prisons.

Feel Good Food Club

This programme supports prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing through food-related in-cell activities. It is for anyone serving a custodial sentence. It is a positive option for the more hard-to-reach individuals who would not normally engage with education services. The programme is fun, engaging and participatory. It comprises six modules, with a module being sent out once a month. Each module is formed of a 4-page learning leaflet and a 4-page activities leaflet.

Food and Wellbeing in Prisons

Our hand-on food and wellbeing workshops in prisons combine workshops, peer mentor training, staff consultancy, and practical cookery courses—delivered in prisons like HMP Send, Wandsworth, High Down, Styal.

Consultancy for Catering, Procurement, Education, and Health Staff

We can help you move from just providing meals towards delivering rehabilitative food cultures, encompassing kitchen gardens, wellbeing workshops, roundtables, and more.

Her Wellbeing / His Wellbeing

Monthly newsletter focussing on mental-health and nutrition, available both online and in-cell to support individuals in male and female estates with their wellbeing. The newsletter can form an integral part of a prison’s health and wellbeing strategy and can help meet requirements set by HM Inspector of prisons.

Feel Good Food Club

This programme supports prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing through food-related in-cell activities. It is for anyone serving a custodial sentence. It is a positive option for the more hard-to-reach individuals who would not normally engage with education services. The programme is fun, engaging and participatory. It comprises six modules, with a module being sent out once a month. Each module is formed of a 4-page learning leaflet and a 4-page activities leaflet.

Food and Wellbeing in Prisons

Our hand-on food and wellbeing workshops in prisons combine workshops, peer mentor training, staff consultancy, and practical cookery courses—delivered in prisons like HMP Send, Wandsworth, High Down, Styal.

Consultancy for Catering, Procurement, Education, and Health Staff

We can help you move from just providing meals towards delivering rehabilitative food cultures, encompassing kitchen gardens, wellbeing workshops, roundtables, and more.

Previous partners

Prisons across the UK

We’ve delivered in-person food and wellbeing courses at HMP Send, HMP Styal, HMP High Down and HMP Wandsworth, working directly with people in custody to build practical cooking skills, nutritional knowledge and confidence, and and a healthier relationships with food. These trauma-informed, participatory sessions have been shown to positively influence food choices and wellbeing in prison settings, supporting communication, social connection and personal growth, while strengthening understanding of how food affects mood, physical health and everyday life behind bars.

Prison Governance and Monitoring Boards

Working with HMPPS, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, and Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs), we facilitated a cross-sector roundtable bringing together frontline, third sector, and policy perspectives on food in prisons. This fed into in a national-level prison food reform briefing, setting out clear evidence, challenges and recommendations for change. We continue to provide ongoing strategic advice to the sector, most recently through the development of a practical toolkit on prison food standards.

Non-profits working in criminal justice & food

Across a variety of formats - from webinars, to shared publications, and more - we have worked with an inspiring selection of non-profits at the forefront of transformative work around food in prisons. These include: Butler Trust, Clinks, Do It Justice, Food Behind Bars, Garden Organic, Howard League Independent I’Monitoring Boards, Inside Time, The Clink Charity, Think Through Nutrition, and Women in Prison

Research Institutes and Universities

Including the University of Liverpool, Royal Holloway, University of London, and University of Plymouth, with whom we have hosted webinars, roundtables, and published briefings together. We have also worked with researchers delivering nutrition sessions in prisons, and continue to contribute towards research into prison food systems.

Prisons across the UK

We’ve delivered in-person food and wellbeing courses at HMP Send, HMP Styal, HMP High Down and HMP Wandsworth, working directly with people in custody to build practical cooking skills, nutritional knowledge and confidence, and and a healthier relationships with food. These trauma-informed, participatory sessions have been shown to positively influence food choices and wellbeing in prison settings, supporting communication, social connection and personal growth, while strengthening understanding of how food affects mood, physical health and everyday life behind bars.

Prison Governance and Monitoring Boards

Working with HMPPS, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, and Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs), we facilitated a cross-sector roundtable bringing together frontline, third sector, and policy perspectives on food in prisons. This fed into in a national-level prison food reform briefing, setting out clear evidence, challenges and recommendations for change. We continue to provide ongoing strategic advice to the sector, most recently through the development of a practical toolkit on prison food standards.

Non-profits working in criminal justice & food

Across a variety of formats - from webinars, to shared publications, and more - we have worked with an inspiring selection of non-profits at the forefront of transformative work around food in prisons. These include: Butler Trust, Clinks, Do It Justice, Food Behind Bars, Garden Organic, Howard League Independent I’Monitoring Boards, Inside Time, The Clink Charity, Think Through Nutrition, and Women in Prison.

Research Institutes and Universities

Including the University of Liverpool, Royal Holloway, University of London, and University of Plymouth, with whom we have hosted webinars, roundtables, and published briefings together. We have also worked with researchers delivering nutrition sessions in prisons, and continue to contribute towards research into prison food systems.

“I found the [programme] very helpful to understand foods that are doing us both good and bad inside the prison. I believe the [programme] could help the whole prison system to understand their diets, to be healthier for the future” – Prison Course Participant

Get In Touch

Reach out to the Food Matters team to find out more about what we do, get involved or to collaborate with us on a future project at [email protected]

Get In Touch

Reach out to the Food Matters team to find out more about what we do, get involved or to collaborate with us on a future project.

Contact Us