In conversation with Lucy Vincent: Improving food quality and culture in UK prisons

Motivated by this work, Lucy undertook a Churchill Fellowship to explore prison food services abroad. Her learning culminated in the publication of her Fellowship report, Food Behind Bars: Prison Food in Scandinavia.

We spoke with Lucy about her work and her vision for improving the food experience for prisoners in the UK.

From journalist to campaigner to charity chief

To find herself heading a charity and becoming the voice of prison food was never a plan for journalist Lucy Vincent.

It was a comprehensive government report published in 2016, called Life in Prison: Food, that prompted Lucy to investigate the quality of food provided for those in prison.

“The report identified poor quality food, a lack of variety, not enough fruit and vegetables, and being very carb heavy,” said Lucy. “It also focused on the food culture. There’s a preconception that prisoners sit around a big table eating but in the UK, for the most part, there is no communal dining.”

Lucy wanted to know more, so began speaking to former women prisoners about their experience of food in prison. Her feature was published in The Guardian.

But Lucy didn’t stop there. Encouraged by friends and family, she set up the campaign Food Behind Bars. In 2020, it became a registered charity.

“We had humble beginnings, but I inadvertently made myself the voice of prison food, and we started building relationships with prisons. Prisons valued our support because they wanted to do things differently. The main driver for turning Food Behind Bars from a campaign into a charity was so we could raise funds and hire staff, and then meet demand from prisons who wanted to work with us.”

Exploring prison food in Scandinavia

Through Lucy’s research, she could see prison food was handled differently, and often better, in other countries. She wanted to look at best practice and see what might work for prison catering managers in the UK, who were equally keen to bring about change.

Lucy spent three weeks visiting Denmark, Finland and Sweden. She already knew Scandinavian countries facilitated self-catering in prisons but was keen to see this in practice.

The benefit of cooking and eating together – often alongside staff – means food is a communal and educational experience. It is also more cost-effective for the prison service, as there is less waste.

Organic produce is prioritised across public sectors, including prison food, with greater emphasis on locally sourced ingredients.

In the UK, there is a four-week cycle for menus, with various options for dietary needs. However, this creates an administrative burden on the catering teams, which detracts from focussing on the food. By contrast, in Scandinavia there is a relatively long menu cycle with fewer options, so it is less unwieldy; quality is prioritised over quantity.

Learning from the Scandinavian system

In the UK, it’s clear the prison system isn’t ready to adopt the Scandinavian model wholesale.

Prison buildings aren’t generally suitable for self-catering although, despite this, pop-up kitchenettes are being introduced.

The centralised catering model, and an exceedingly small budget of £3 per head per day, adds severe constraints.

“Catering teams in the UK have to work a lot harder because of this. We know the ingredients aren’t the best quality, but within that we look at what we can do to enhance the food experience for prisoners.”

To help prison catering managers make the most of what they have to work with, Lucy is now creating a podcast. It will feature interviews from one of the prisons she visited in Denmark and provide useful content.

Lucy is also about to roll out a new training programme, for prison caterers, focused on helping them provide the best food experience within the constraints of the system, which includes costed recipes.

“While Scandinavia had all these great facilities, what they also had were incredible catering people. But we have people like this in the UK too. Ingredients, budget and design of prisons is important, but there is nothing more important than the people who make the food and if we can upskill, empower, educate, and inspire them, we can create amazing things.”