Thinking Through Nutrition in Prisons

HMP Eastwood Park: A Case Study

In 2019-20, we delivered our first ‘Think Through Nutrition in Prisons’ project with 33 women at Eastwood Park, focused on enhancing participants’ nutritional knowledge and habits, and helping them to:

Improve their mental and physical health with emphasis on wellbeing
Learn and ‘take ownership’ of their learning
Look to making positive long-term changes for themselves and their families

Awards

In 2021, this project became a finalist for The Butler Trust’s Ruth Mann Trophy for best practice.

Offering

The pilot consisted of three core elements:

› Learning toolkit and practical education for better self-management
Including sessions on nutrition basics, food for a healthy brain, food hygiene, cooking methods, label identification, shopping on a budget and eating well at home as well as creative elements such as cookery classes, mock shopping experiences and food tastings.

› Menu changes to improve current health and wellbeing
Developed with the women and catering team. To encourage engagement, we analysed and adapted recipes suggested by the women, adjusting them in consultation with the catering team for mass catering.

› Defining and measuring outcomes and impact
Using a three-tiered Outcomes Framework which considers individual, organisational and Criminal Justice needs. Outcomes were co-produced with participants, staff and existing prison partners to enable ownership, and we used focus groups throughout the pilot, along with pre and post-programme questionnaires.

Outcomes

Early reported outcomes include improved:

› Brain health
Increases in sociability, learning, concentration, energy and sleep

› Physical health
Improvements in chronic conditions, digestion, weight and levels of activity. One participant reported that she has regained normal glucose control after decades of Type 2 diabetes and that the GP attributed this reversal to the new diet offered in the Pilot

› Food knowledge and habits
Healthier food choices and better knowledge demonstrated

Long Term Impact

After programme completion, all 400+ women at Eastwood Park were given access to the Think Through Nutrition menu, with one recipe added as an option to each meal.

Eastwood Park now has a team of women taking a more active role in the catering delivery.