Chef Natalia Middleton is head of food education and development at Food Behind Bars, a non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming the food served in prisons in the UK. She talks to The Common Table about control, well-being, mental health and monopolies in the British penal system and galvanising system change through food.
Orlando Lovell: What does “food education” in the UK prison system mean to you?
Natalia Middleton: We’ve worked in twelve prisons since I started at Food Behind Bars in 2021 and we’re currently in three. At first, we focused on teaching men and women in prison to cook and learn life skills. But we’re pivoting away from that now towards working with the prison catering teams, engaging them, inspiring them, getting them to think in different ways and involving their prisoner workforce.
We’re also thinking about the wider picture of why good prison food is important and changing the food systems there. Even something as simple as feeding the men and women in prison better can help reduce health issues as well as rates of violence, or assaults on staff or other prisoners.
Sophie Lovell: Tell us about the various systems you’re working with. Do you include supply chains and prisoners growing their own food on-site for example?
Natalia Middleton: One of the systems we struggle most with is that there is just one single supplier of ingredients for all the prisons in the country. There is a food budget that goes with that which is now £2.70 – £3 for three meals a day per prisoner. Until recently it was £2.10 but it’s gone up because of inflation. That is a really big issue.
One of the systems we struggle most with is that there is just one single supplier of ingredients for all the prisons in the country.
Sophie Lovell: That is a shockingly small amount of money. Are prisons able to supplement that at all?
Natalia Middleton: Some of the prisons we work with are situated on big plots of land with loads of space and greenhouses, so they can supplement their food quite a lot. Others, like the old Victorian city prisons for example, just don’t have the space. So they can’t supplement but they are trying. A lot of prisons have started doing their baking in-house, which has reduced costs, and provides better quality bread. Some prisons now keep their own bees too, which means they get their own honey and also the benefits of the process of getting outside and looking after the bees. So there are mental and physical health benefits in producing their own food as well.
A lot of prisons have started doing their baking in-house, which has reduced costs, and provides better quality bread.
Most of the ingredients from the supplier are imported and really poor quality. You know when you get a tomato that’s really red and juicy in the summer and you feel the goodness in it? Theirs never look like that. There’s no flavour. You have to work the ingredients harder than you normally would to get the nutritional and flavour benefits from them.
Orlando Lovell: Is there time for the staff and inmates doing the cooking to work with the ingredients they have to make better food?
Natalia Middleton: The regime of the prison plays a big role. Inmates usually get unlocked for their day around 8 am. They then go to work or to the kitchens and anywhere between 10 am and 10.30 am they go back to the wing for their lunch. Between around 10:30 and 2 pm they’re locked up so that staff can go off and have their lunch, and then the prisoners go back to work or the kitchens or education, from about 2 pm to 4 pm. So they have to do their cooking in the kitchens within those times.
Orlando Lovell: So food is delivered to inmates in their cells alone? They don’t eat together?
Natalia Middleton: Yes. Also, on the bigger estates, the kitchen could be on one side of the prison, and the cell blocks on the other side. So their food has to go into a hot trolley, which keeps cooking the food. So from the kitchen to the wing, it’s still cooking, and everything’s mushy and grey. So part of our job is getting people to think about these problems: Could we cook it slightly less, or sprinkle some fresh herbs on it once it gets to the wing so it looks a bit more appealing?
Sophie Lovell: Are the teams cooking always a mixture of employees and prisoners?
Natalia Middleton: In most prisons, it’s the prisoners who are doing the cooking. But there are some prisons where they don’t do any cooking, just washing dishes or taking frozen sausage rolls out and putting them on a tray to be defrosted or cooked. So there’s no actual cooking happening. A lot of the food is processed which ties into the fact that there are major equipment issues across the state prison system. We know of prisons that haven’t had ovens or dishwashers for years, or they have just one bratt pan. So they end up heating pre-made processed meals for convenience, which are a lot more expensive.
A lot of the food is processed which ties into the fact that there are major equipment issues across the state prison system.
Orlando Lovell: Is there any way prisoners can make their own food?
Natalia Middleton: A lot of prisons now have some form of self-catering facility. They can’t always eat from there, it’s more like a prison shop where they’re able to choose ingredients and make food in little kitchenettes. The range of ingredients isn’t hugely diverse, but they’re pretty innovative and find ways.
Sophie Lovell: I could imagine that one of the worst aspects of prison food, apart from access to healthy ingredients, is potentially not having access to your own food culture. What is the culinary cultural diversity like?
Natalia Middleton: It’s not great. I would say it tends to be better in inner-city prisons. Obviously, religious needs are catered for; halal or special food over Ramadan, for example. But then you also get people complaining that the food is too culturally diverse and there’s not enough “plain” food. The balance is not always right.
We try and make sure that our food is as culturally diverse as possible. We also try and get people from different cultures and backgrounds to do the cooking of that food, because they’re the ones who know best; they know the flavours and so on. We always try and encourage catering teams to involve people from different backgrounds as much as they can. At least that way they’re able to have a bit of autonomy over their food.
We run a course called “Cooking From My Culture” where prisoners get to write a recipe and create a dish from their culture. Then they sit down with a staff member that they’ve chosen to share the meal with and get to share about their culture and their background. It’s a nice way of kind of breaking down the barriers between staff and prisoners because there does tend to be a lot of a disparity. Prison staff tend to be white or not from any ethnic minority background, and the majority of the people in prison are from ethnic minority backgrounds, which does cause quite a lot of tension.
Prison staff tend to be white or not from any ethnic minority background, and the majority of the people in prison are from ethnic minority backgrounds, which does cause quite a lot of tension.
Sophie Lovell: Eating together is a time-honoured way of helping to increase understanding and ease tension. Do prisoners and staff ever eat together at other times?
Natalia Middleton: The staff don’t generally sit down and eat with the men or women. I recently visited a prison in Denmark where the staff and prisoners all sit together and eat the same food. Sentenced prisoners there also have a little on-site supermarket (with the same prices as outside) where they do all their shopping so they can cook for themselves on their wings. They have to budget, work together, make shopping lists, learn cooking skills and so on
Eating together is not at all a communal activity in UK prisons as a rule.
Prisons in the UK have serveries on the wing where the men will go and collect their food and then they have to eat in their cells. Some prisons will deliver food straight to the prisoner’s cell so they don’t have to be unlocked. The staff have either their own food that they bring in or a staff canteen or cafe. But if that is run by prisoners there’s also staff that will then refuse to eat food that’s been cooked by prisoners. Eating together is not at all a communal activity in UK prisons as a rule.
Orlando Lovell: Tell us about some of the projects you’ve set up to address some of these systemic problems.
Natalia Middleton: We did a two-year-long, two-part project at a young offenders prison in the Midlands, called Swinfen Hall. They had a big greenhouse there that wasn’t being used so one part was helping set up a kitchen garden. We had raised beds built on-site by other prisoners. We also sent some staff on a beekeeper training course so they could then train the men. They started with two hives, and now they have five. The honey is used in the kitchens and they sell it too. Their kitchen garden is thriving and a lot of the vegetables they grow either go into meals for the men, or to the staff café and to be used in the training programmes they do there.
The other part of the course was working with their staff bistro. It is run like a professional cafe (when I was there last) by six men who were more trusted prisoners. I went up there every two weeks to give training sessions. We did a “Cook for Ukraine” event, a bake sale, and food for Black History Month. We also just got lots of new recipes on the menu, utilising the ingredients from their garden.
This course was also a way to learn new skills. Prisoners asked to learn recipes for things they could make with their children so we did a lot of baking and that kind of thing. We helped get the place repainted and installed shelves for loads of cookbooks. So now it’s a really nice place to work and we’ve been able to step away knowing that it’s all continuing on.
A really important part of our work is making sure that our projects are sustainable once we leave and have a wider impact on the prison.
Orlando Lovell: Sustaining the changes you help implement must be a real challenge if you are not there all the time.
Natalia Middleton: A really important part of our work is making sure that our projects are sustainable once we leave and have a wider impact on the prison, rather than just being for the people that we’re working with at the moment.
Another year-long project, funded by the NHS, is in an unused space out the back of one prison’s healthcare unit that was just a miserable grey courtyard. We’ve hired someone who goes in three days a week to run growing training and cooking sessions with the men. All the men on this programme have some sort of physical health problem or mental health problem that we’re hoping we can help with a little bit. They learn about growing food and cooking, and we’ve got bees there as well. There’s also art therapy, spoken word, yoga and stretching exercises as well. We get them outside every day even when it’s miserable.
The courtyard is now heaving with produce, and we’re about to do a mural on the grey walls. Once that’s done, we’ve been given another space in the prison, that we’re going to make into a beautiful, pollinator-friendly wildflower, garden with other men from the prison. So it’s very much about focusing on the wider benefits that others can have, as well as just the people we’re working with. Both these projects tap into lots of different systems.
It’s very much about focusing on the wider benefits that others can have, as well as just the people we’re working with.
Orlando Lovell: What kind of feedback and response do you get from the prisoners who’ve been on your programmes?
Natalia Middleton: They love it. They love having the freedom. One guy, who had been on remand for two and a half years, said it was the best thing he’s ever done. For some, it’s just the excitement of seeing an ingredient that they haven’t seen for maybe a decade. Things we don’t really think about, like a whole chicken for example. Sometimes I’ll bring things from a supermarket that I’m passing on my way to the prison. A while ago, I saw some tomatoes that were reduced. So I took those and they were all excitedly eating them like apples because they were tomatoes that looked like tomatoes and actually had flavour.
I think they like having the opportunity to cook, the opportunity to meet new people when we take in guest chefs and that kind of thing. I have a rule for myself, I try and make sure that the sessions make the people who are receiving them feel like they’re not in prison for that time. So we will have conversations about TV shows that we’re all watching. If I’m in a young offender’s prison, I’ll have purposely been watching Love Island so that there’s that common ground of something we can talk about whilst kneading bread or folding dumplings.
I have a rule for myself, I try and make sure that the sessions make the people who are receiving them feel like they’re not in prison for that time.
Sophie Lovell: As we talk, I keep thinking about spices for some reason. Is seasoning something that that’s plays a strong role in the kind of food you’re doing with the prisoners?
Natalia Middleton: Yes, especially because they don’t have much of a selection that they can access. I tend to take in the fresh things as much as I can, like Kaffir lime leaves or lemongrass. Things they can get their hands on and really smell. But its not just the spices that bring flavour. Even just cooking things in different ways like actually browning meat or onions to get some flavour. They don’t do that normally in the kitchen, there’s just a pot were everything gets boiled all sweaty together.
Sophie Lovell: We’ve talked about food as a tool for empowering prisoners in terms of their sense of worth and mental health but what about the flip side: food being used as a means of control within the prison system?
Natalia Middleton: Prisoners are literally fed more at the weekends because there are less staff and they are locked up for longer. The thinking is that keeping them slightly full and happier and sleepy on the weekend is more beneficial than them being hungry and angry when there’s less staff around. It is known that food determines individual emotions and feelings, as well as the general energy of a larger group.
It is known that food determines individual emotions and feelings, as well as the general energy of a larger group.
I was in a prison last week where prisoners get a breakfast pack containing the same breakfast 365 days a year: some tea bags, some coffee sachets, some sugar, some long-life milk and some kind of cereal. They literally get that every single day. They then get their lunch at about 10.30 am, which is not a normal time to eat lunch, and their dinner comes at about 4.30 – 5 pm, which again is not a particularly normal time to eat your evening meal. Sometimes they will give them their morning breakfast pack with their evening meal. So it can be that they’re not eating anything for 17 hours because they’ve eaten their breakfast pack after dinner because they’re still hungry. It’s a really hard environment to deal with food in.
Sophie Lovell: If prison managers are already thinking about food as a means of control then it can’t be that big a jump to understanding that eating better food or having different kinds of engagement with it is going to contribute to overall happiness.
Natalia Middleton: Prison is meant to be rehabilitation, not just incarceration. We know people who have come straight out of prison and ended up in hospital because their bodies have been so damaged from what they’ve been eating inside. So in that respect, the system is just passing the strain from the prisons onto the health services, and they don’t even think about it.
Sophie Lovell: If you had the power to implement immediate food-related changes in the prison system, what would be on your priority list?
Natalia Middleton: For me, the biggest thing is this monopoly on ingredients and having one supplier for all prisons. That needs to change as soon as possible. If they could access local suppliers and local produce I think that would make a huge difference. Obviously, raising the budget would be a great improvement. But it’s not the end of the world, because we know that good food in prisons can happen within that. The third thing on the list would be giving people in prisons autonomy and access to cooking their own food, not just because of all the mental and physical health benefits but also the life skills that they learn. And finally, some form of food education for everyone in prison.
I don’t see why someone who’s in prison shouldn’t have access to good food and be able to feel the things that food makes you feel.
Orlando Lovell: It sounds like you put a lot of yourself into this job.
Natalia Middleton: I was speaking to someone yesterday, and they said: you do know there are easier ways to make a living don’t you? And I said, yeah, there are, but they’re not going to give me the enjoyment, the life experience and all the stories that I get from doing this.
For me, food is about bringing people together. It’s about making people feel good. I don’t see why someone who is in prison shouldn’t have access to good food and be able to feel the things that food makes you feel. It’s bizarre to me that people think people in prison should just live off crap.
Natalia Middleton has been fascinated with criminal justice and the prison system from a young age. Born in Sao Paolo, Brazil, she grew up in New Zealand and the UK before studying criminology and ancient history at the University of Auckland. After graduating she returned to London for a diploma at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Whilst there, she developed an interest in teaching through food. After a run of jobs in cafes, restaurants and catering she became a tutor at the School of Wok, an Asian cookery school in London. In 2021 she saw a chance to combine her passions and was hired as a development chef and the non-profit Food Behind Bars, a registered charity founded in 2016, dedicated to transforming the food served in British prisons. Natalia is now their head of food education.
Andy Aitchison is an independent documentary photographer working on social, justice, cultural and political issues as both commissioned and personal projects. He specialises in prison, environmental projects and campaigns.
Title photo: HM Prison Brixton, a local men’s prison located in Brixton in the borough of Lambeth in London, United Kingdom. The prison originally opened in 1820 as the Surrey House of Correction and now has the capacity to hold up to 800 men living across five different wings. Photo © Andy Aitchison
