Dr. Connally is the Managing Director of Cherwell Collective. In this piece, she reflects on a new partnership with HMP Bullingdon developed to support offenders prior to their release to teach employability skills as well as connect prison residents with one another over food and discuss fears of what comes next.  

New Cooking Coursework at HMP Bullingdon Prison

Climatarian Kitchen is pleased to announce that starting in September 2025, we will provide cooking workshops for offenders at HMP Bullingdon prison.  Workshops will include eight sessions focused on a variety of food knowledge and preparation skills. Students who complete all eight sessions will have the option to take a guided ninth session to potentially earn a food hygiene certification, which can enhance their employability upon release.

The new on-site partnership with HMP Bullingdon is an extension of our previous work to offer offenders volunteering opportunities upon their release.  The HMP Bullingdon community connections officer saw an opportunity to build on that relationship by bringing Climatarian Kitchen on-site to work with inmates. The two organizations hope to make this a long-lasting partnership.  The September 2025 courses will be repeated in January 2026, with the second set of lessons including a focus on winter well-being, an extension of our “beat the blues” outreach.

Dr. Connally and Climatarian Kitchen sous chef Andreea Illie develop coursework to teach food skills.

We believe that these activities are part of the responsibility of a social enterprise like ours to be maximally inclusive and take opportunities to those who might not have the flexibility or freedom to travel to our offerings.

Prison Program Continues Climatarian Kitchen Teaching Mission

Climatarian Kitchen started as a teaching kitchen. Initially, our goal was to share knowledge and reduce food waste. We achieved this by creating meal kits using the contents of delivered food parcels to help people make the most of the surplus food provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, we had amazing volunteers who would research ingredients or share their own favourite recipes. We all bonded over trying each other’s ideas, and our community really loved some of the suggestions. At that time, we served only Cherwell District.  

Now, years later, we have provided skills training throughout Oxfordshire, not only through videos, flexi recipes and meal kits, but also through cooking workshops and demonstrations.  These have been held in Oxford City, Bicester, Banbury, and Kidlington. We have welcomed guest chefs from our community and partners to help deliver these courses, and have had students ranging from 5 to 90 years old over the years. 

Cooking Skills Are Lifeskills 

Beyond the community cooking courses, our kitchen (and every kitchen) is a training kitchen. We have supported dozens of students over the years, from Duke of Edinburgh students learning the basics of food hygiene to students in culinary school needing a place to practice in a high-paced environment before moving on to paid employment. Even our young, brilliant Chef Ashley Pile came on to develop his skills in our kitchen before moving on to one of the best plant-based restaurants in Oxford, the Punter. 

One of the first lessons we impart is how to swap ingredients. This can mean taking a recipe you know and love, but using something less expensive to bulk it out. Or in the case of our cafe, using whatever is coming in as food surplus, which usually means it’s in season and helping to reduce food waste. Recipes like stews and soups make this easy, (try our Seasonal Vegetable Tagine). 

There are other challenges we face every day in flexible cooking. We train math skills, how to use existing recipes, and what to do if you have limited supplies of one ingredient that is limiting the size of a batch you can cook. Cooking flexibly requires planning, organisation, and critical thinking to take “whatever turns up” and turn that into a meal day in and day out. Specific skills we focus on include how to prepare vegetables for quick cooking, how to use slow cookers and other appliances that use less electricity, and how to make your vegetables last longer to reduce waste and keep your costs down through preserving.

Where the food supply chain is fairly unpredictable, the learning curve is steep, but that’s when your kitchen training becomes a lifeskill. 

One example of what students can learn is how to build curry flavours. Part of our “tasty like takeaway” lessons help people learn how to build dishes like curry, risotto, or chilli at home to save money and use up ingredients in the fridge or seasonal surplus.

Cutting Costs and Crime 

It will come as no surprise that enriching the lives of offenders has benefits not only for the residents of a prison but also for the wider community. Cooking courses like those we will offer in partnership with HMP Bullingdon are part of a wider effort to increase education opportunities for offenders. 

Courses like ours will provide a variety of benefits, including building confidence for individuals, promoting teamwork and collaboration, promoting healthier eating, supporting creativity, and imparting life skills in sustainability and low-cost living. Participation in such courses decreases the chances that, upon release, an offender will commit another crime by over 7%. 

There are also direct benefits, which include an increase in employability after release. In our programme, students who complete all courses without incident will earn a Level II Food Safety certificate, increasing their employability immediately. Further, we have guest chefs from kitchens across Oxfordshire helping deliver our courses regularly, including head chefs of Roll With Me Sushi, Willow Tree Cafe, Jojo’s Dough on the Go, and Mariella’s Italian Bliss. Guest chefs train new skills but also provide direct opportunities for offenders to connect with potential employers prior to release. Employment after release is a critical factor that reduces the likelihood of reoffending significantly, by almost 10%. 

We are not the first group to recognize that cooking skills courses offer a unique opportunity where education and skills training can also enhance employability. As such, participation in cooking workshops has been shown to have dramatic results beyond the impact of education or employability alone. Participants in the popular Clink Charity programs are 32% less likely to go on to commit further crimes, compared to those who did not receive training.  

Prevention really is the best cure.  For every  £1 invested in programs like ours, almost £5 is generated in savings for the prison service, government, and community due to reduced reoffending rates.

Help Support this Innovative Prison Programme

Dr. Connally and chef Illie pose with the Cherwell Collective van.

We are testing materials for these courses throughout the summer and autumn at WISH (4 The Parade, Kidlington, OX5 1EE) both formally and informally. In the past, we have hosted sushi making, quick pickling, pasta making, curry night, and bread making. Most of our community students attend to learn tips to make daily life easier, and to have a bit of fun with one another. In the midst of all that fun, students learn how to follow a Climatarian Diet, a key pillar in the path forward to combat climate change, collectively.