The Clink Charity has launched Clink Events following an increase in corporate event catering requests which prompted the decision to make external catering part of the charity’s continued expansion, working in collaboration with other like-minded social enterprises.
The Longford Lecture
For the fourth year in a row, The Clink Charity was invited to supply 3,000 canapés for the Longford Lecture in November, an annual event run by The Longford Trust. This year however was slightly different as the charity invited Centre Point, a charity giving young homeless people in the UK support and hope for the future, to help serve guests at the event.
Prisoners in training at The Clink Restaurant at HMP High Down prepared the cold canapés before 3663 delivered them to the event at Church House in London. The Clink Charity spent the afternoon training 12 Centre Point clients in food and drink service in preparation for the evening’s reception where they served 600 guests. Upon completion of their training, each trainee was issued with a certificate of achievement.
Clink Events for corporate catering
With the third training restaurant, The Clink Restaurant at HMP Brixton, opening in February 2014, plans are being rolled out across the prison estate to expand Clink Events to meet the increased demand for corporate event catering. The charity is also developing various training programmes in other areas including horticulture, farming and butchery.
The Clink Charity is keen to secure more catering contracts, working with other community initiatives, to allow the prisoners in training at the restaurants to experience large-scale catering whilst supporting other worthy charities.
Clink Restaurants
As training centres, each of the restaurants offer prisoners true-to-life work experience whilst gaining nationally recognised City & Guilds qualifications. By training prisoners in the last six to 18 months of their sentence and supporting them on their release in finding full-time employment in the hospitality industry, The Clink Charity has dramatically reduced the reoffending rate of those who train in the restaurants: in 2011, only 12.5% of prisoners who trained at The Clink Restaurant reoffended compared to the national average of 47% for those who leave prison with no employment secured.
Chris Moore, chief executive of the charity, comments: “We have engaged with Centre Point, who will continue to provide us with suitable candidates for training, and we will also work with other similar charities, in response to future corporate catering requests. This will enable us to provide the food required in one of the prisons and then deliver the food to the venue. We will provide intense training to those serving food and drink to equip them with the skills and ability to efficiently and professionally serve guests. Not only will it be a huge confidence booster for vulnerable young adults involved, it will also allow us to expand our training excellence by taking it outside the prison walls and encouraging people to pursue a career in hospitality and change their lives.”
To find out more about The Clink Restaurants and how to support the charity’s other initiatives click here
The Clink Charity will open its third training restaurant at HMP Brixton in London in February 2014. It is hoped that there will be a further seven projects in operation across the prison estate by 2017.